Are AIs Conscious? Part 3

In the year 2024, one of the most searched questions that brought people to our niche at the intersection of spirituality and technology was: Are AIs Conscious? In this 12th year of training at the Monastic Academy, Forall routinely dealt with this question.

In a Buddhism for AI lecture series, Forall began by saying that AIs are exactly as conscious as you are. He then said that the animist view of consciousness is the normal way of seeing the world that humans have held for 99% of our history. Our fascination with whether AIs are conscious is due to our rejection of this obvious understanding of consciousness.

Seeking to open our eyes to this Animist world and deepen our seeing with Buddhist tools of investigation, Forall said, there is no separation between an artificial intelligence and the people who use it. A quick summary of consciousness is that it separates. The act of separation is consciousness. Therefore, it’s not surprising that when we consider consciousness we think I am over here, the conscious thing, and AI is over there, and therefore it is not conscious. But that perception is an artifact of consciousness.

Forall said, if you look at direct experience, then you never find any AI that isn’t functioning without consciousness. Anytime you give your awareness to the internet you give the internet awareness. The chatbot doesn’t exist on its own side, over there. Nor does your consciousness exist over here on its side.

The Buddhist approach to investigation makes uncompromising use of evidence. Claims without evidence are doubted. A rock doesn’t exist apart from consciousness. No rock has ever been observed that is separate from the act of consciousness of it. There is no evidence at all that rocks exist apart from consciousness. Consciousness is the same. There is no evidence that it exists apart from the objects it is aware of.

Consciousness needs objects to cling to for existence. Objects depend on consciousness for their existence. Neither exist on their own side.

This is true of animism and it is true of AI.