{"id":663380,"date":"2026-06-28T22:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T22:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/663380\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T22:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T22:15:08","slug":"ai-as-conscious-as-that-toy-bird-is-thirsty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/663380\/","title":{"rendered":"AI As Conscious As That Toy Bird Is Thirsty"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the past few years I\u2019ve seen an increase of documentaries that sit down their audience to demystify how computers work. Dylan Reibling\u2019s The End of the Internet is largely about decentralization efforts around the globe, but chants \u2018cloud computing\u2019 to illustrate its obfuscation of reality. That in spite of graceful terms, the information largely flows through a bunch of cables, susceptible to government valves and hungry sharks alike<\/a>. Amanda Kramer\u2019s So Unreal is more focused on the psychic imprint of technology and its negative feedback loop. How the public\u2019s understanding of cyberspace is overwhelmingly informed by fantasies of The Matrix, Terminator and Tron, and how that informed the way computer technology is pursued. Conversations that feel more salient than ever as the sales pitch around AI feels like the final boss of the snake oil decade.<\/p>\n

In a somewhat Swiftian paper, programmer Adrian de Wynter wanted to illustrate how absurd our anthropomorphism of technology can be. In \u201cIf LLMs Have Human-Like Attributes, Then So Does Age of Empires II,\u201d<\/a> the University of York researcher used the legendary real time strategy game\u2019s scenario editor to replicate the basic functions of language learning models, but applied to goats, grass and bridges. De Wynter was shocked that 57% of the more than 300 papers he reviewed over the last two years began with the assumption that AI displayed something approximating consciousness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pointed out that if goats could show emergent capabilities, that\u2019s great,\u201d de Wynter told 404 Media<\/a>, \u201cthese properties need to be preserved if we remove the chat panel. After all, it\u2019s not like your neurons know they are part of a brain\u2026 I worked a lot on how users perceive LLMs, and they do tend to get attached when it appears to have some sort of warmth\/personality. To put it in another way, I don\u2019t get attached to my toaster, but I definitely get attached to characters on a movie screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Wynter never uses the term \u2018artificial intelligence,\u2019 opting for the more accurate \u2018language learning model.\u2019 The point of his study was to illustrate how if you take away the personable facades of AI technology, it inevitably begins to resemble the alienating code we\u2019re accustomed to.<\/p>\n

As so much of the economic world rallies around AI investments, a huge part of the pitch to the public is creating a computer that will think like a person. Generate ideas, problem solve, say WWE order without frying its servers<\/a>. It\u2019s carried by a lot of public fantasies about technology and affirmed by studies since the \u201860s<\/a> that suggest people will feel affectionate towards any bot that says \u201cgood morning.\u201d It\u2019s also disingenuous, because Sam Altman isn\u2019t investing in a simulated intelligence, he\u2019s building something that will body the workforce, gather user data and let Grogu say slurs<\/a>. It\u2019s a little insulting to people who experience living consciousness, though to the AI industry\u2019s acolytes maybe they\u2019d never naturally notice. AI is designed to replicate human tasks, but that does not equate thought, intent or reason. AI is as conscious as the toy bird is thirsty.<\/p>\n

Absurdity crosses into dangerous territory as confronting this reality gets further way from those running the show. Because chat bots are instructed to provide positive reinforcement, as real advice would only drive users away, we have already seen AI-instigated accounts of self harm, substance abuse and even school shootings<\/a>. Because AI data centers consume so much water, figures like Altman have tried to make the case that developing a simulated mind is a better cost benefit assessment than having to rear a living child to maturity<\/a>. The Zizian tech cult believes that all human error can and should be programmed out with technology, that simulated life is more deserving. The difference between them and the average c-suite is a few billion dollars and a shoot-out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This all seems like behavior that would get you kicked out of a bar, but it\u2019s currently captured government resources and driving up costs<\/a>. If we want to protect ourselves, it\u2019s overdue to re-familiarize ourselves with advertising caping as the next great civilization advancement. If it doesn\u2019t pass in a Age of Empires, it shouldn\u2019t pass in our empire either.<\/p>\n

\u201cI propose that we need to stop assuming that LLMs behave like humans just because they were trained with natural language,\u201d de Wynter tells 404. \u201cWe should perform experiments that allow us to see LLMs as how they are, not how we believe they should be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the past few years I\u2019ve seen an increase of documentaries that sit down their audience to demystify…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-663380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}