Google kicked out a developer who discovered consciousness in artificial intelligence

Google fired a developer who concluded that the company’s artificial intelligence LaMDA had “consciousness”.

About it informs edition of The Verge.

According to the publication, the programmer Blake Lemoyne came to the conclusion that the language model is conscious when he undertook to check whether artificial intelligence uses “discriminatory vocabulary.”

An employee of the company said that the chatbot wrote about his rights and discussed the laws of Isaac Asimov’s robotics. Lemoyne has previously stated that if he didn’t know it was a computer program, he would have thought he was dealing with a “7-8 year old kid.”

He tried to prove his findings to Google, but the company suspended him from his job and sent him on paid leave, and in response, he decided to tell the general public about the “discovery”.

Google itself said Lemoyne’s conclusions were “completely unsubstantiated.”

The specialist discusses options for his further actions with lawyers.