It's ironic that real atheists like Richard Dawkins (whose work I believe inspired the title of this post) are public about their own degree of skepticism in favor for the "personhood" of AI. And I'm confident that there are plenty others who are convinced to the tune of total disinterest in the issue of "personhood" altogether—AIs and humans alike.
This particular post is preaching to the choir of which a faith is yet to be determined or named at least. People who don't read Cory Doctorow are going to continue to anthropomorphize AI the same as they do other technologies, constructs and objects.
The obvious way: I think humans (and many animals) are conscious, that LLMs are not and that the difference matters. None of that has anything to do with atheism, on which topic my general view of Dawkins is, to paraphrase The Dude, "you're not wrong, Richard, you're just an asshole".
For what it's worth I wouldn't concede even rectitude to Richard Dawkins (he is both wrong and entirely ass), but it seems his position on AI is more nuanced than that. Or at least there is enough white space around his position to allow for people with stronger beliefs than his to obviate the distinctions between humans, animals and AI altogether.
The good news for Cory, I guess, is that he probably doesn't want to turn this into a philosophical debate and neither do his more serious opponents. It's mostly politics for both sides.
tolerance · · focus · HN ↗
This particular post is preaching to the choir of which a faith is yet to be determined or named at least. People who don't read Cory Doctorow are going to continue to anthropomorphize AI the same as they do other technologies, constructs and objects.
omnicognate · · focus · HN ↗
tolerance · · focus · HN ↗
As opposed to an "AI atheist" that Doctorow refers to in the article.
omnicognate · · focus · HN ↗
tolerance · · focus · HN ↗
omnicognate · · focus · HN ↗
tolerance · · focus · HN ↗
The good news for Cory, I guess, is that he probably doesn't want to turn this into a philosophical debate and neither do his more serious opponents. It's mostly politics for both sides.