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Guardian

AI could cause ‘social ruptures’ between people who disagree on its sentience

Guardian
Summary
Nutrition label

80% Informative

Jonathan Birch , a professor of philosophy at the London School of Economics , said he was “worried about major societal splits’s over whether AI systems are actually capable of feelings such as pain and joy.

He said this could result in “subcultures that view each other as making huge mistakes” about whether computer programmes are owed similar welfare rights as humans.

AI large-language models have already started to show they can be motivated at least by concepts of pleasure and pain.

When AIs were tasked with maximising points in a game, researchers found that if there was a trade-off included between getting more points and feeling’ more pain, the AIs would make it.

VR Score

81

Informative language

81

Neutral language

42

Article tone

informal

Language

English

Language complexity

60

Offensive language

not offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

medium-lived

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