Self-Awareness, a Singularity of AI
Jinchang Wang
Philosophy Study February 28, 2023 DOI: 10.17265/2159-5313/2023.02.003 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that self-consciousness is unique to human intelligence and cannot be achieved in electronic computers or robots, making it a "singularity" of artificial intelligence. Because AI software lacks self-awareness, the authors contend it will remain a tool of humans and will not dominate society regardless of its intelligence. |
Abstract
Self-awareness, or self-consciousness, refers to reflective recognition of the existence of “subjective-self”. Every person has a subjective-self from which the person observes and interacts with the world. In this article, we argue that self-consciousness is an enigmatic phenomenon unique in human intelligence. Unlike many other intelligent and conscious capabilities, self-consciousness is not possible to be achieved in electronic computers and robots. Self-consciousness is an odd-point of human intelligence and a singularity of artificial intelligence (AI). Man-made intelligence through software is not capable of self-consciousness; therefore, robots will never become a newly created species. Because of the lack of self-awareness, AI software, such as Watson, Alpha-zero, ChatGPT, and PaLM, will remain a tool of humans and will not dominate the human society no matter how smart it is. This singularity of AI makes us re-think humbly what the future AI is like, what kind of robots we are going to deal with, and the blessing and threat of AI on humanity.