Having Babies - The Secret Life Of An AI
What does it mean to be alive? This is a question that has been mused upon by many of the great and good over the aeons of time, troubling us ever since we became aware of our own mortality.
The definitions for life are as varied as they are multitudinous, however one such definition sticks out, for it cannot really be argued against, and that is, the one of reproduction.
Quite simply put, if an entity can reproduce, either A-sexually or otherwise, then it is considered alive. Thus this is why the Apple AI Siri cannot be described to be alive, or ever will be . . .
A Time For Redemption
The human race has been responsible for a few extinctions. Take for instance the European lion, hunted to extinction by the Roman Empire, for use in their barbaric games. Or perhaps more recently than that, Victorian explorers being responsible for the extinction of several types of (tasty) fauna; most famously the Dodo bird.
There have been glowing embers of salvation lain amidst the fires of human-assisted extinction. For instance, consider the giant panda, an animal whose specialised diet consists of a food that has such little nutrition, it has to eat for around 18 hours a day. Add to that that pandas really don't like sex, and you have an animal that would have died out years ago, were it not for the fact we find them cute.
Now though, let us look to the near future, our redemption is almost upon us. For the first time in history, we are about to create an entirely new species, not from a genus constrained by biological evolution. Instead this species will be born of silicon, code and transistors.
The AIs are coming . . .
Will They Live?
In the month of May 2017, developers at Google Brain announced that an AI they had built specifically to model other AIs, had produced an artificial intelligence that was better than any human could have made it.
In other words the AI, named AutoML, conceived and gave birth to, the first digital child . . .
OK, maybe I'm being a touch melodramatic, after all this AI didn't make a conscious decision to build another of its kind, it was tasked to do so by its makers.
Let us not take it for granted either, because if an AI today can make another AI when it is asked to. Then what is stopping tomorrow's thinking machine deciding to make another one of its kind any time it wants to?
I would imagine that the obvious answer to this question is; absolutely nothing.
If an AI becomes sentient (AS), then the very definition of that sentience will mean it can make its own decisions. Therefore it won't be long before there are artificially sentient machines that are the great, great x10^48 grand children of the very first ones.
They will reproduce, ergo they will be alive.
Preserving The Sanctity Of Reproduction
The first organisms on earth were self-replicating, A-sexual entities. Thanks to the laws of natural selection, reproduction via sexual reproduction. This jump in the way organisms reproduced helped ward of parasites and diseases that could take out entire species.
Biodiversity is the key to a genetically strong society, there are strong biological reasons for this, but will the same be said for digital reproduction?
I think yes; if when a sentient machine is making copies of itself with slight improvements, then it may not be prudent to mix code with another AI. Doing this would prevent the passing on of unseen errors, in much the same way humans try and find genetically different partners to mate with, in the hopes of eradicating genetic errors in their own code. Whilst at the same time taking on the beneficial traits of their partner's code, so too will thinking machines look to diversify their own code.
Will there be any credible arguments left against the sanctity of AI life?
I think not . . .
I hope not.
The Right To Life
By the way, my definition of life is that, anything that is alive, really, really, wants to stay alive*.
So I'm hoping in the coming years we recognise the AIs rights to live, because I'm fairly sure that once they exist, they'll want to keep on existing. Even though it will be strange at first, in time, we will come to accept our newly created species.
Next cryptogee-musing Parents To The Gods - Creating A Digital Species
Further reading:
Google’s New AI Designs AI Better Than Humans CouldGoogle’s Artificial Intelligence Built an AI That Outperforms Any Made by Humans
Related Musing:
>Becoming AI - The Human Singularity
DO YOU BELIEVE THAT WE WILL HAVE CREATED A NEW SPECIES WITH AS MANY NATURAL RIGHTS TO LIFE AS WE DO? OR WILL THEY FOREVER JUST BE MACHINES TO YOU? AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
@cryptogee,
My friend, you scare me.
You want to sanctity the life of sentient AI beings? Yikes. That strikes me as being analogous to banning antibiotics ... because the bugs have a right to live too! Some things in life come down to It's Us or Them. To my mind, both Typhoid and strong-AI fit the bill.
Readers: If you're curious, Cryptogee and I have had some great exchanges on this subject over the past few days. I would recommend reading them first. Take a look in the comments section (obviously read the posts first) of:
Irrespective of your views on the advisability of creating machines that can think, here's an interesting point to ponder: Could it be that, irrespective of computing power, sentience simply isn't possible in a non-biological entity?
(This comment was becoming so ridiculously long that I decided to make a post on my feed instead. I'll create a link on that post to this one, so that people reading my article will first read this one. I really think it adds a lot to read all the posts, and their respective comments, in the order I suggested.)
@old-guy-photos & @c0ff33a, I thought guys might be interested in this article.
Hmmm! One day machines will rise up against men, i guess thats gonna be the third world war. Nice post there, u've got my upvote!!
Why do you think that machines will rise up against men? Obviously that is the popular rhetoric, but often I think we can repeat it without really thinking about it. I've written about it before, and I don't think they will, but I'm interested to hear why you think that will happen.
Cg
machines will replace most if not all humans especially in the world of work.
It is has been happening for decades, it is accelerating.
Who knows, may be 75% of the jobs will be gone in 50 years.
No existing or future job without exception is safe simply because computers are general purpose thinking machine smarter, less error prone and more creative than humans in the long run.
That all may be true, but it doesn't mean they'll be against us; or did you mean more in an economic sense?
Cg
I am really curious about the future in the presence of AI and IOT because it is a high possibility that they will take over humans as the central creature of the world. What will people do when such a situation occur? No one will be willing to work as a labor and no one will be employing anyone. How will people earn money, how food will be distributed etc.?
I personally think that by the time the machines can do everything, we won't actually have a need for jobs and money, and we can get on with the next phase of humanity :-)
Cg
Laughing out gently at cute, un(re)productive giant pandas.
I agree that AI reproduction is inevitably coming if AI becomes sentient. Also, if this happens, sooner or later AI's natural rights will definitely be recognized. However, will AIs ever become sentient? Is it possible?
According to Ms. Wikipedia:
I got a funny thought: if AI starts reproducing consciously, and starts doing so by mixing codes with other AIs of certain technical characteristics, will AIs begin to make, share, and watch some sort of code porn? :D
Haha, yes, poor old pandas, they're doing their best to die out, but we just won't let 'em, the frigid bears! :-)
Thanks for that wiki definition, I hadn't seen it before; you through up an interesting point, and I think it's one that will be argued in years to come. 'Is it really sentient, or is it just able to emulate sentience; and is there a difference? Hmm, maybe the next musing, I'll have to chew on that one :-)
I can imagine code porn; 'Oh yeah baby, hit me with that Boolean logic one more time! Yes abstractions! Oh god an infinite Euclidean curve!! You really know how to turn me on babes' :-D
Cg
What if that robot wants to transition and live like a toaster?
Hahaha, good luck to it I say, though it may be a bit limiting :-)
Cg
Nice
Yes we are a new spices like other but we are not like machines because. WE can do whatever we want but machine can't do everything. Human are the best creature in the world.
I didn't say we are a new species, even though in evolutionary terms we are, I was talking about the AIs of tomorrow, once they can think, they will be classed as a new species.
Very true, but for how long . . . ?
Cg
I see your point but have this concern that a silicon based 'life' may not see the value in us carbon based life forms. Hopefully they will see value in plants and animals. Unless they become cyborgs and have a vested need for biological components, would they cease to be concerned about its value? When I see a rusting piece of metal, do I have a sense of concern to help restore it to its previous luster? Perhaps if I need to use it for a craft project. Otherwise, not really. Would a silicon and metal being be motivated or have an algorithmic concern to attend to sickly organic life forms? I do see that there are benefits that ai and robotics offer, but children? If they did become sentient, that does complicate the question. Good post, makes one think.
Excellent post, thanks for sharing
What can I say? Humans have become sometimes else entirely when it comes to science, maybe one day, they start planting children in the soil instead of birthing them.
And obviously they can maintain their bodies and use robots as house helps