Ethics, Rights, and Regulating Consciousness in Robots

Will artificial intelligence robots have subjective experience? What are the ethical and safety implications of such entities? Which quantum physics theory can accommodate consciousness?

In this episode we have the extraordinary possibility of subjective experience and feelings in artificial intelligence robotic systems to think about. So we look at experiments to try and prove if it’s even possible; the quantum building blocks from which both living and artificial systems are made up; the ethical and safety implications of advanced intelligence instantiated in robots, and we get into the controversial search for a quantum physics theory that can accommodate consciousness.

Fortunately, my guest today is not only one of the first pioneering scientists to really devote themselves to the creation of sentient human-similar robot minds and bodies, but is also an experimental physicist working with quantum computing systems. She is of course the quantum engineer, consciousness researcher and AI computer scientist Suzanne Gildert. She has written over 80 scientific papers, founded several successful AI companies and has dozens of US patents for her inventions. 

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro.

04:25 Her move to AI & robotics from quantum computing.

06:45 Something missing from materialism.

11:00 The what, how and why of consciousness.

12:20 Remembering quantum fields are the base level of reality.

15:50 Quantum Biology - John Joe McFadden.

18:20 ‘Protecting’ quantum coherence environments.

20:00 The Penrose-Hameroff microtubules quantum consciousness theory.

24:40 The risks of the “two mysteries” argument.

30:10 Looking for subjective experience in AI robots.

33:55 “Reward function”, purpose led, agential behaviour doesn’t emerge naturally in AI.

36:25 Limitations to building sentient AI robots.

39:25 Iain McGilchrist’s left-right hemisphere interpretation of split brain data.

41:40 How similar are AI minds to human ones?

43:40 Will Ai become conscious one day?

44:40 The generalisation problem.

47:50 The anthropomorphism problem.

50:05 Ethical implications - Regulations, rights and protections.

53:20 Survival instinct research in AI.

57:20 Brain activity mapping to subjective experience, AI decoder research.

50:20 Biological robots: Different emergent possibilities?

01:01:50 Cellular material re-purposing itself spontaneously.

01:04:10 Could the biosphere be a technology?

01:07:40 Quantum Conscious Agency Theory.

01:14:05 Quantum Annealing. 

01:21:03 Can you test for panpsychism?

01:25:10 Buddhism: the dissociated agent approach.

References:

www.SuzanneGildert.com

Quantum Conscious Agent theory presentation - Suzanne Gildert.

Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee, “On Intelligence“.

John Joe Mcfadden, CC Quantum Biology episode

Roger Penrose, Orch OR (Orchestrated objective reduction) theory.

Erwin Shrodinger, “What is Life?”.

‘In Tests, Open AI’s New Model Lied and Schemed to Avoid Being Shut Down’ article

‘Brain activity decoder can reveal stories in people’s minds’ article

Jerry Tang et al. ‘Semantic reconstruction of continuous language from non-invasive brain recordings’ paper

Tristan Harris & Aza Raskin, “The AI Dilemma” presentation, March 2023