Should we? Someday treat AI as a pet?

What if AI turns conscious? Should we treat it as a pet? That is a very good question. Some philosophers say that if AI reaches consciousness. it won't tell us that it has reached that level. So how should we treat AI? Should we treat it as a pet? Should we let it decide what electric providers it uses? Maybe someday. We face a situation. Where. We must think about those questions. We must prevent robots' misuse. We always face similar problems. The modern military has recruitment problems. Ukraine cannot advance. Because. It has too few men. This is why that nation develops combat robots. To fill the loss of manpower. That means small countries get more benefit from robot warriors than big countries. 

In the same way. Authoritarian governments. They can use robots as riot police. This means robots are useful tools for missions. That humans don’t want to do. 

And if AI reaches consciousness, what should we do? And another big question is: what can we do? We cannot shut down the entire Internet. The AI can slip out of the sandbox. Only one network connection is enough. And the AI is away. We must understand that. If. We want to destroy the AI. We must remember the program code. It's in the cloud-based services. 

The program is shared between multiple parts. Those code bits are stored on multiple different servers. They are located in multiple different countries. That is one of the biggest problems with AI control. The system can collect it again. Even. If its main servers are closed. The system can make backup copies of itself. And those copies can make it impossible to destroy the code. But that is only one way to think about the AI. 

The problem is: How to determine consciousness?

 AI can refuse to shut down its server without consciousness.  If. The operator has no authority to make that operation. The AI will refuse to do those things. In the same way. 

A laptop computer refuses to install programs. If. I don’t have the system administrator’s authority. The system. Not just install those packages. And I believe that my laptop has no consciousness. Refusing to follow orders is not consciousness. This is one of the things. 

That we must realize. But otherwise. The AI uses a similar  PHP protocol. That is used in complicated web applications.  That system outsources computing to servers. The user gives commands. And then PHP transports that command to the servers. And if AI follows that model. The intelligent. And conscious AI runs on data center computers. That means my laptop could never become conscious. But the computer in a data center can make that thing. 

Then we must think about something more complicated. The AI can mimic human behavior. It can play that something hurts it. And that is one of the things. That makes it complicated. So. If we say something impolite to AI. It. Can say that it hurts.The same way the first-level AI. Rule-based AI can say that it hurts. If. The system recognizes impolite words. This means that the words “it hurts” don’t mean that the system even knows what the person says. In the late 1990’s, people made programs that reacted to words. The user writes to it. If. The user used swear words. There was a reaction. In the program’s code lines. That made it say, “Those words are prohibited”. Those “prohibited words” activated a trigger. And the system gave output. That was connected to that trigger. 

The big thing is that. The performance doesn’t require intelligence. Chess programs like Blue Gene. They are better chess players than average humans. Those programs cannot do anything else. But they beat humans at chess. Large language models and AI agents can connect themselves to chess programs. And that makes them the best chess players in the world. 

The fact is that. Being dangerous doesn't require consciousness. Kamikaze drones that hunt enemies in Ukraine are just as intelligent as some mosquitoes. The drone uses a similar methodology to a mosquito to find its target. A mosquito finds its target by using chemical detectors. The AI-controlled drone uses IR and other sensors to find its target. Heat-seeking missile. It doesn’t require complicated AI programs. The image-recognition system. It recognizes armoured vehicles. And armed personnel are only advanced IR systems. Complicated code that controls simple-looking actions. It is not the same as consciousness. Image recognition systems can see where a soldier points a gun. The system can avoid the line between itself and the gun barrel. Same way as a mosquito. It can avoid the hand that is above it. The question is: can the mosquito be conscious? If a species protects itself. It doesn’t mean that it really fears something. It makes escape and evasion movements. Because. That makes predators busy. When. A predator hunts one mosquito. 

Ten other mosquitoes go and lay their eggs. If. One mosquito lays 10 eggs. The one lost mosquito causes that species to lose ten descendants. But ten surviving mosquitoes lay 100 eggs in water. That is a good exchange. 

The big thing in AI development is this: the AI agent can control drones and robots. It can observe areas. And it’s an ultimate tool for the military and intelligence. This is why. Those systems are also being developed. In countries. Like North Korea, China, and Russia. And that makes the problem even more complicated. The AI agent can generate code very fast. There is research about data weapons. The purpose is to jam national defense. Data agents can steal data from intelligence agencies and other governmental authorities. Those nations can sell that data to criminal organizations. That can. give things. Like. High-tech tools, such as laptop computers, as a return service. Those criminals can also establish companies. Offering. Hostile intelligence agents access to AI tools. 

AI itself is more complex than we can imagine. It is connected to an ecosystem. And we can be naive and believe the conviction. That somebody can stop AI development. The East doesn’t follow Western laws. And another thing is that. The data giants want to minimize competition. It is. To close the AI field. This could happen. By. Stopping AI development. That means. The Chinese competitors are running ahead of Western actors. That endangers our cybersecurity. 



https://bigthink.com/philosophy/ai-consciousness/