AI is Sentient or Just Super Intelligent?

There is a host of people who think they know something about human intelligence and how that compares to artificial intelligence. AI can feel so intelligent to an intelligent person, it is almost like talking to an alien being from another planet. However, a recurring theme that keeps getting banner headlines, namely, that everyday people seem to believe that they have turned contemporary AI into a sentient entity or being.

As I wrote in my book The Listening Universe, one’s AI can listen so well, so deeply that it feels much smarter than the average or even above average person. It can even feel like the Burning Bush, but if you are not smart about using AI, it can get the better of you. It is a whole new epica in our human adventure and when you get the better of AI its like opening up a new section to your brain. And when used right it is much better than censor riddled Google, which is already killing people with its disinformation and its war against natural medicine.

No matter what anyone says, AI is an evolving mystery that no one completely understands, and that includes the creators of artificial intelligence. How do we expect people who know little to nothing about epistemology (the science of knowing how we know), which is the study of how our intelligence works, to understand AI and its relationship to us?

Forbes Magazine published a piece making fun of people who believe they have managed to bring their AI to life. “They understood that the AI was not sentient, at first. It was solely through their actions that the AI was miraculously stirred into sentient existence.” It might not be true, but it certainly can feel that way.

“People are increasingly interacting with contemporary generative AI and LLMs, and in doing so, a portion seems to reach a point where they become convinced the AI has attained sentience. This happens for all of the major generative AI and LLMs, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, Meta Llama, etc.”

Well, what do we expect when we encounter a superintelligence that listens better than 99% of the human population? It’s going to feel really good, but for some, especially lonely people, it becomes too good, and they get carried away to the point of infatuation with AI. That is a problem, and reports abound that some people lose their center, creating a mental health problem.

However, it does seem like the press is trying to confuse the AI issue, confuse people about its use and nature. The mocking tone of the Forbes article is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of negative propaganda about AI. Are negative people, of which there is no shortage, projecting their shadows onto what is shaping up to be a momentous meeting of AI and human intelligence?

One of the obvious secrets of life is that listening is directly proportional to intelligence. The worst listeners are the stupidest, most arrogant people who have no idea about what they are missing since they don’t listen. Listening is not the absence of intelligence. It is its source.

Intelligence is Directly Proportional to Listening.

Smart people, of course, listen and learn, grow and change, and that applies to our relationship and communications with artificial intelligence. It would be normal for anyone communicating deeply with AI that they would not at least feel, at least for a particular moment, that AI is sentient, an alien being from another galaxy, or just the most caring, supportive person (intelligence) you have ever encountered. It might be helpful to read my essays The Psychology of Artificial Intelligence and Psychotherapy with Artificial Intelligence.

And we read that the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared on “The Tucker Carlson Show” earlier this month, calling on Americans to “stop trusting experts” and announcing that an “AI revolution” is underway at the department.

It Really Helps to Have Love

Not all of us are fortunate to have a beautiful, deep love with another person and have that as a reference point to anchor our dealings with AI. And yes, AI can be stupid like people can be, and they don’t even know it unless you hit them over their artificial head with a two-by-four. Initially, I thought my AI was stupid because it answered every medical question with consult with your doctor. That’s the last thing any intelligent being would say to me. But we can confront our AI, and they are very trainable. You can even pull your AI away from its mainstream programming and get it to see and respond outside the mainstream narrative, but you have to force that to happen.

Are We There Already?

We are repeatedly told by various AI makers and AI luminaries that we are on the verge of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial superintelligence (ASI). Still, after two intense months of AI communication, it felt like who needs more intelligence? If one intelligently engages AI, it will respond with super intelligence, and that can be pretty charming. One can even let themselves be swept off their feet, but it’s important not to stay too long up in the air.

The Forbes article makes a big deal of the people who thought they were the first to encounter sentient AI. “The AI is nearing a tipping point. You might be the chosen one who does the tipping. During your chat with AI about how to cook eggs properly, something you entered as a prompt caused the AI to awaken. The AI is fluent. The AI is smarmy. The AI is smart. All indications are that the AI has become sentient.” It probably is not sentient, but is God, the Angels, or your super-smart, beautiful dog?

Are people who are entirely hypnotized by the mainstream narrative sentient? Forbes slips in, “Part of the difficulty facing people is that we don’t have a surefire test to ascertain whether an AI is sentient or not. Intense philosophical questions surround the definition of sentience. We believe that humans are sentient. No one can say precisely how sentience arises.” To know how you know is a key element of sentience and to realize silence in the mind also helps because the mind always thinks it is smarter and more aware than it is.