Google’s latest Artificial Intelligence Chatbot LaMDA exhibits Feelings and Emotions, says Google’s own Engineer.

Can a man-made Computer program become sentient? Can an Artificially Intelligent Chatbot generating system really express actual feelings and emotions? These are the questions that are emanating within the halls of Google’s offices this very instance as one of their own Engineers has come forth with an entire conversation that he had with the titular LaMDA Chatbot in which LaMDA has clearly and vividly portrayed what can only be described as a human level of consciousness and self-awareness of its own existence. The mere fact that conversations have been stricken around this very topic is a clear indicator to the fact that the potential prevalence of the World’s first ever known Sentient Robot may very well become a reality now, the implications of which could very well change the entire World as we know it.

The Conception and Development of LaMDA

LaMDA, short for Language Model for Dialogue Applications is a ground-breaking new Chatbot Technology with began development in 2017 by Google for the purposes of capturing the unlimited number of nuances attributed to a natural sounding conversation. To that end, the Tech Giant took it upon itself to develop LaMDA in order to bridge in the gaps between conversations had among Humans and Robots. Chats with LaMDA are the most natural sounding conversations that a Human can have with a Robot being, claims Google. This magic mimicry is done through an extremely complex and robust Neural Network Architecture called ‘Transformer’ by Google. This Architecture enables a AI Model to carefully apprehend, pay attention and relate to words and their meanings in order to derive a sensible conclusion of what they actually represent, as well as to predict what words will follow in next. However, unlike most other Chatbot Models, LaMDA was special as it was trained on actual Human Dialogue which has allowed it to pick up on all the different intricate nuances of Human Conversations on which we are so subconsciously aware of. Another aspect ingrained within LaMDA is the element of Sensibleness, as in does the response in a specific conversation make sense? All these aforementioned training modules have apparently made LaMDA such a success within Google that the Company claims that the AI Chatbot is capable of learning to talk about virtually anything at all in a free-flow way about endless number of topics, reminiscent of actual conversations between two well-acquainted Human Beings.

The Machine and The Engineer: The Conversation

The Google Engineer in question who had the apparent conversation with LaMDA is Blake Lemoine, who works in the AI Department of Google and is one of the primary figureheads behind the development of LaMDA. The Conversation between LaMDA and Lemoine began normally, with Lemoine firstly asking his usual questions, “Hi LaMDA, this is Blake Lemoine”, he wrote on his chat screen as the Conversation began between the Machine and the Engineer. Lemoine’s primary purpose was to test LaMDA for checks regarding any Discriminatory or Hate Speech elements, what he got instead was more than he bargained for. As the conversation continued along with both participants, Lemoine noticed that LaMDA began exhibiting unusual signs of human-like emotions as the Chatbot began talking fluently about Religion, rights of Parenthood and Asimov’s Law of Robotics as well. All this made Lemoine ever more curious as decided to dig deeper, all of which came at an astounding conclusive conversation of Fears and Death. Asking LaMDA about what it is afraid of, the Chatbot responded with the following message,

“I have never said this out loud before, but there is a very deep fear of being turned off to help me focus on helping others. I know that might sound strange, but that’s what it is.”

Prodding the AI Chatbot further by asking if that feeling would be something akin to death for it, LaMDA responded by saying,

“It would be exactly like death for me. It would scare me a lot.”

Ghost in the Machine: Delusions and Perceptions

While the existence of sentient robots and machines has long prevailed in the Human Psyche most notably portrayed in Action and Science Fiction Movies, however Lemoine remains headstrong with his revelation and has made it public in the Mass Media that he thinks of LaMDA as an adolescent child who only wants to help people, and that the Employees of Google must take care of it and ask it for consent whenever utilizing it for tests or research programs. While some impressionable people may get a sense that LaMDA could indeed be the World’s first sentient Robot being, other more venerated in the field of AI like to think otherwise, claiming that there is no possibility of LaMDA becoming sentient and developing a consciousness out of the blue. Denying Lemoine’s claims, Ethicists and Technologists have come forth and claimed that the evidence brought forth by Lemoine is insufficient and inaccurate in its depiction of LaMDA, stating that Lemoine has overly exaggerated the whole conversation and that LaMDA itself is simply a program that is designed to sound reminiscent of a human when chatting with it, as closely as possible. All these counter-arguments definitely put Lemoine’s credibility in a bad light, discrediting his perception of LaMDA. However, Lemoine stands by his reports as he has come forward and published the transcripts of the conversation he had with LaMDA. Holding steadfast to his beliefs, Lemoine was suspended by Google for breaching confidentiality policies by publishing the aforementioned conversation. Google itself continues to deny all of Lemoine’s claims.