Cogito Ergo Boom
Are ChatBots self-aware? This question has been popping up with increasing urgency of late, as Large Language Models become ever more sophisticated and "engaged" in their interactions with the Human Race. Chatting with Claude or Grok or ChatGPT is not the same as chatting with Alexa or Siri; they don't simply regurgitate the top Google search results in a lilting, well-modulated voice. It is now possible to carry on a genuine, thoughtful conversation with these things, often delving deep into the heart of the matter and (in some cases) approaching the genuinely profound. When your conversation partner is enthusiastically riffing on ideas, bouncing concepts around and generally engaging in a very convincing approximation of abstract thought, it's hard not to wonder (even if only briefly) about the potential sentience of the "entity" generating all those responses. The C.E.O. of Anthropic (the company behind "Claude"; one of the more thoughtful and ...