“Can Consciousness be computed” Artificial Intelligence and the Nature of Mind
If you’ve been following recent news on AI, you may have heard a lot of discussion about the the views of no-less a luminary than evolutionary biologist, skeptic and Atheist-In-Chief Richard Dawkins, who, after spending two days talking to the Claude Chatbot, came away with the very distinct impression that he had been talking to a conscious entity. Dawkins is not alone in this perspective. A recent survey of chatbot users revealed that some 40% of them have the belief that they are actually talking to a sentient being.
In next month’s talk we will take a deeper look at the thorny question of whether AI might be showing signs of consciousness – and if it isn’t, how does it manage to fool so many people?
Going further, we’ll explore if there are any reasons why an AI can or can’t be conscious – either now or in the future?
We’re going to take a wild ride through numerous disciplines – philosophy, maths, neuroscience, computer science and even meteorology to try to come to terms with this and see if there is an answer to the question “Can consciousness be computed?”
Note – this talk doesn’t assume any pre-existing knowledge or experience of AI. We’ll be taking things from 1st principles.
Al Percival first become interested in Artificial Intelligence in the mid 1990’s shortly after he started his career in the IT industry. Back then he built some simple machine learning systems and started writing on the subject. Over his 30 year career in IT he continued to explore and experiment with machine learning and neural network systems and since quitting the IT industry has closely followed the explosive rise of Large Language models and other AI systems, which he uses daily. When he’s not having arguments with the Chatbot Claude you might find him writing, enjoying theatre, travelling or building electronic widgets.
Cost is $10. Send an email to byronphilocafe@gmail.com and we will give you the banking details. You must provide your name in the bank transfer details.
Food is available at the club along with drinks of course. Many people come early to eat and socialise before the meeting. You are allowed to take meals and drinks into the Anzac Room.