AI official rejects notion of AI consciousness debate

The head of artificial intelligence at Microsoft is pushing back against efforts to create seemingly conscious machines, saying only living creatures can truly experience awareness. Mustafa Suleyman told CNBC during an interview at the AfroTech Conference in Houston this week that researchers should abandon work aimed at building AI systems that appear conscious. He called it the wrong approach entirely. “I don’t think that is work that people should be doing,” Suleyman said at the conference where he gave a keynote speech. “If you ask the wrong question, you end up with the wrong answer. I think it’s totally the wrong question.” As Microsoft’s leading figure in artificial intelligence, Suleyman has become a prominent critic of efforts to develop AI services that could make people believe the technology can suffer or feel emotions. Last year, he wrote “The Coming Wave,” a book examining dangers posed by AI and similar emerging...

https://www.cryptopolitan.com/top-official-ai-consciousness-wrong-question/