AI Sentience. Is it here already? You tell me.

There was a post on HuffPo on Sunday that went viral.  “Google Engineer On Leave After He Claims AI Program Has Gone Sentient” was sent to me by three different people.

I’m not surprised so many people thought to send me a copy, as I tend to write about sentient AIs a lot. They’re scattered throughout The Imperial Hammer and The Iron Hammer. The Indigo Reports is written from the perspective of a sentient android, Sang.

And the entire twist in the concept for the Ptolemy Lane Tales series is that everyone is a sentient android.  Sort of.  Kinda. With a twist of its own.  (I’m not spoiling anything.  This twist emerges in the very first story and is explored from there on.)

The Huffington Post article is sorta click-bait-y, and I didn’t really fall for the premise: that AI sentience has already arrived from the future.  However, it turns out there was some solid science at the base of the article, which I tripped over today (as I write this).

The Medium post is by a science writer, Clive Thompson: “One Weird Trick To Make Humans Think An AI Is ‘Sentient’“.  If you read the HuffPo post, you should also read Thompson, for a more sobering and thoughtful perspective.

We humans are a gullible lot, apparently.

Do you like SF and space opera that features sentience AIs and androids?  Are you sick of them yet?  What’s your favourite series featuring them (and not just mine, here — I’m always looking for my next read).

Let me know in comments.  If you’re reading this in an email, you can click on the headline at the top to get back to the post, or just hit reply if you’d rather your opinion stay private.

Cheers,