Comment by bruce511
3 days ago
First thanks for the "anecdotal evidence" for consciousness being a mentally ill person. That's an excellent laugh on multiple levels.
But my main question is this - why do you care if people believe it is sentient or not, and why do you believe some tech-minority should control how they perceive AI?
Obviously AI is not conscious- it is a statistical engine spitting out numbers with some additional randomization.
But why is it a problem if it mimics sentience while conversing? How is it a problem to you if others perceive it in this way?
Who made you sufficiently important to call for specific global prompt? Given that you have solved the problem for yourself? Your username suggests a desire for personal liberty, yet you wish to control how others interact with AI?
I ask these questions not to be combative. I am asking in good faith, in the sense that I want to understand your impulse to control others, or the world as others perceive it.
Thanks for the questions.
> why do you care
I care about the health and happiness of my fellow humans. It's not unusual to seek restrictions for the community if they prevent harm. Seat belts?
> Obviously AI is not conscious
That may be obvious to you and me, but I am absolutely certain that that is not obvious to the majority of mankind, many (most?) of whom have never even contemplated what "consciousness" means.
> I want to understand your impulse to control others
If you saw someone walking into the path of a train while scrolling on their phone, wouldn't you reach out to stop them? Or would that just be your "impulse to control others"?
> I ask these questions not to be combative.
In my version of reality, questions are never combative.
> I care about the health and happiness of my fellow humans. It's not unusual to seek restrictions for the community if they prevent harm. Seat belts?
The list of things that cause harm to the community is certainly very long. We could talk about smoking, or drinking, or social media, or a hundred other things. I'm not sure the perception that AI is conscious is in the top 100, but it's cool if this is the battle you want to fight.
Of course even the most obvious of harms can be detrimental if banned. Take prohibition for example - banning alcohol didn't really solve any problems, and ended up creating more problems than before. Solving an issue by "banning" is thus not always a good approach.
I'll add that if the perception of consciousness is a harm (and I'm not sure that it is, at least not directly) banning the use of pronouns won't really change anything. Those people who think the AI is conscious will do so regardless of pronouns.
For your own health, which I think one should certainly prioritize for, having a custom prompt telling the AI to exclude pronouns would be a good thing (and I think you're doing that.)