My work on Conversational Leadership has increasingly led me to explore how we think and converse with AI. As AI becomes more capable, conversations with it are becoming remarkably human-like. We are approaching a point where, unless we are told, we may find it difficult to distinguish a conversation with an AI from one with another human being.
But there is an important difference. However human an AI may appear, it works in ways that are fundamentally different from the human mind. It can reason, respond, ask questions and appear to understand us, but does it actually experience anything? Is there anything it feels? Could it ever be conscious?
These questions matter because how we understand the nature of AI shapes how we relate to it, how much we trust it, and how we engage with it in conversation. We can easily treat AI as though it were human, without stopping to consider what that might mean.
This has prompted me to explore the nature of consciousness, not because I expect to settle whether AI is conscious, but because I want to understand what consciousness is and why it matters.
The result is a new chapter in my blook, simply titled Consciousness. It begins with a straightforward explanation of what we mean by consciousness, then explores subjective experience, the hard problem of consciousness, consciousness in other animals, its relationship with intelligence and, inevitably, the question of whether AI could ever be conscious.
I’ve learned a great deal in writing it, and it has certainly challenged some of my own assumptions. We still don’t understand much, and I suspect some of the most interesting questions are the ones we have no clear answers to.
But one thing seems increasingly important to me. As AI becomes more human-like in conversation, we need to become more thoughtful about what makes us human and what makes AI different. Understanding consciousness may help us do that.
Knowledge Letter: Issue: 317 (Subscribe)
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Image Credits: Midjourney
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