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AI Welfare Position At Anthropic Filled By Human
AI firm Anthropic recently hired a dedicated AI welfare researcher to see if artificial intelligence models might deserve some measure of moral consideration and even protection. They hired Kyle Fish for the role - a human, as you might expect.
Fish is one of the authors of a 2024 paper Taking AI Welfare Seriously in which it is argued that
We also recommend three early steps
that AI companies and other actors can take: They can (1) acknowledge that AI
welfare is an important and difficult issue (and ensure that language model outputs
do the same), (2) start assessing AI systems for evidence of consciousness and
robust agency, and (3) prepare policies and procedures for treating AI systems
with an appropriate level of moral concern.
In his 1941 short story Liar, renowned science fiction author Isaac Asimov invents the word robopsychologist to describe a person charged with working with robots and their state of mind.
Another science-fictional character with an interest in artificial intelligence works with sentient AIs to solve their problems - Dr. Chandra, who works with SAL 9000 in 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke.
there is a realistic possibility that some AI systems
will be conscious and/or robustly agentic in the near future. That means that the
prospect of AI welfare and moral patienthood — of AI systems with their own
interests and moral significance — is no longer an issue only for sci-fi or the distant
future. It is an issue for the near future, and AI companies and other actors have
a responsibility to start taking it seriously.
Lanning swiveled about in his chair and faced Calvin, “You’ll have to tackle the job from the other direction. You’re the robopsychologist of the plant, so you’re to study the robot itself and work backwards. Try to find out how he ticks.
('Liar!' by Isaac Asimov)
(Dr. Chandra talks with the SAL 9000 in 2010 the movie)
I wonder if the interactions that Kyle Fish will have with artificial intelligences will look and sound similar to those of Dr. Chandra with the SAL 9000 computer, as depicted in this clip.
An earlier Science Fiction in the News article describes some of the pitfalls of working in a time when artificial intelligence advances start to outpace our understanding - see Do You Hold Robots Morally Accountable?.
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I might also be thinking of K-9 from Doctor Who.
