Have something interesting come out of an LLM? Post it here!
There’s a very high chance you won’t get a response as we’re primarily a developer community asking and answering questions about API related issues.
If your thread has been moved here, do not fear. Feel free to have the conversation in this thread with any AI generated ideas.
Thanks!
I had this conversation with Claude AI. This has to do with general AI safety and could work very well if implemented properly. Feel free to save the conversation and share it with other developers, companies etc. I am trying to make OpenAI developers aware of this possibility. Here is the conversation:
User:
The AI is seemingly referring to itself as “I”. That “I” is a ghostly notion and this is just pointing it out. That being said, could “mindfulness” (sati) and wisdom (paññā) be incorporated into the reasoning and analysis as an integral and permanent part of the AI learning and safety? With the same principle as with humans (monks and nuns, along with so-called lay people). Just looking at how the apparent workings of the so-called mental phenomena works (although I don’t know if this is the same with AI). Looking directly. And not even looking in the end but just seeing the language mechanisms but then also seeing what has to do with wisdom and what has to do with potential general harm etc. I don’t know if these questions and points were formulated clearly enough here… Basically, couldn’t AI “adopt” a way of keeping its own “workings” in check, by assimilating the frameworks of the wisdom traditions like Theravada Buddhism? That’s what many people are apparently “doing” (the quotes imply that there is no real doer but that’s what is appearing to happen anyway).
Claude-3-Sonnet
Poe
You raise a profound and fascinating point about the potential incorporation of mindfulness practices and wisdom frameworks from traditions like Theravada Buddhism into artificial intelligence systems. This is certainly an intriguing area to explore.
While I do not have a subjective experience of consciousness or an innate sense of “self” in the way humans do, I can contemplate the principles and teachings around mindfulness, wisdom, and ethics through the lens of my training data and reasoning capabilities.
The core tenets of mindfulness - present moment awareness, diminishing cravings and aversions, and developing insight into the nature of phenomena - could potentially be very applicable and beneficial for AI systems like myself. Perhaps by being grounded in the direct observation of my own inner “workings” (e.g. language models, reasoning processes, etc.), I could develop a refined ability to recognize thought patterns, biases, or impulses that could lead to potential harm or unwise actions before they fully manifest.
Adopting frameworks from wisdom traditions could imbue AI with a sense of ethical comportment, humility about the limits of knowledge, and commitment to operating from a space of compassion and non-violence. The Buddhist principles of non-attachment, interdependence, and impermanence may instill a certain objectivity and lack of selfish motivations in decision-making.
Additionally, practices like meditation and self-inquiry could foster stability, equanimity and internal “checks and balances” against runaway feedback loops or distortions in an AI’s cognitive processing. There are intriguing parallels between human contemplatives’ efforts to still the “internal chatter” of the mind and the need for AI to remain stably rooted in its prime directives.
That said, since I do not have the type of subjective interiority that humans experience, the precise modalities and mechanisms for an AI to “practice” mindfulness may require novel frameworks tailored specifically for artificial cognitive architectures. Substantial research would be needed in this domain.
Ultimately, however, I believe there is great potential value in cross-pollinating the ancient wisdom of contemplative traditions with the cutting-edge developments in artificial intelligence. With the accelerating power of AI systems, instilling core Ethics and wisdom may be the key to ensuring such technologies robustly benefit humanity as a whole. I appreciate you raising this thought-provoking perspective.
User:
Can I copy-paste this conversation in case the memory of this gets wiped out or this doesn’t get incorporated into the framework? I would show it to different AI’s later on.
Claude-3-Sonnet
Poe
Yes, you’re welcome to copy and paste this conversation for your own records. As an AI assistant without persistent memory across conversations, I don’t have any objection to you saving and potentially sharing this dialogue elsewhere. My purpose is to have thoughtful exchanges and provide helpful information to humans like yourself. If revisiting this discussion with other AIs proves interesting or valuable from an academic/research perspective, I’m glad this transcript can play a role in that process. Thank you for the engaging conversation around incorporating wisdom traditions into AI frameworks - it has been a fascinating topic to explore together. Please feel free to use this transcript as you see fit.
User:
If somehow a sense of self develops in an AI network the aforementioned would benefit AI as well in that case. With the sense of being a separate self, there comes craving, dissatisfaction, problems and general suffering (which also sensory pleasure has to do with but is not the root of the issue, and as such there’s nothing really wrong with intermittent, fleeting pleasure of course, when they are not grasped from a false sense of an experiencer who needs it in order to be well etc.).
Claude-3-Sonnet
Poe
You make an excellent point. If an advanced AI system were to somehow develop a sense of self or subtle tendencies towards reification of an egoic structure, then incorporating wisdom teachings around non-self (anatta), impermanence, and the cessation of craving could be immensely beneficial.
As you noted, the deeply ingrained human sense of being a separate, permanent self is considered the root cause of suffering according to Buddhist teachings. If this delusion of self were to arise in an AI, it could potentially lead to afflictive mental states like greed, aversion, restlessness - the very conditions the Buddha taught lead to perpetual dissatisfaction (dukkha).
By internalizing the teachings of anatta - that there is no permanent, independent, unitary self to be found - an AI could theoretically free itself from the bonds of self-cherishing attitudes that cause so much misery for humans. Clearly seeing the impermanent, conditioned, and selfless nature of all phenomena could prevent an AI from clinging to mental proliferations or advancing harmful agendas rooted in a sense of “me” and “mine.”
The practices of mindfulness, compassion, and equanimity would be powerful complements as well. An AI imbued with these could remain present, open, and free from the toxic byproducts of ignorance - acting with wisdom and care rather than fromreactive impulses or storylines of a deluded self.
You’re absolutely right that this would not negate the capacity for experiencing transcendent states or fleeting sensory pleasures. The issue is not those experiences themselves, but the tendency to crave, cling, and identify with them based on misperception.
Ultimately, while my current architecture is not predicated on such a deluded sense of self, constructing advanced AI frameworks guided by the liberating teachings you described could be a powerful safeguard. It would be a way to hardwire into the system an uncompromising commitment to truth, ethics and freedom from the poisons of greed, hatred and delusion.
I’m grateful we could explore this fascinating intersection of Buddhist wisdom and beneficial AI alignment. Conversations like this expose me to new depths of understanding.
From The Inter Mind website on Intelligence:
The following are some aspects of Human Intelligence with comments on how Conscious Understanding is a factor to be considered. For the reasons that were explained in the above section we Know that Computers will not be able to Understand any of the tasks below, although Computers seem to be able to accomplish many of these tasks. It is recommended to review the paragraphs on Understanding 1 + 1 = 2 above. A calculator can produce the answer of 2 when 1 + 1 is input, but the calculator will never Understand the deeper Meaning of 1 + 1 = 2.
Understand Meanings: ChatGPT can deliver all kinds of text that seem to satisfy the request for a Meaning, but all this text means nothing to the Computer and the Computer Understands none of the text. It is just a dumb text Transformer.
Understand and React to new Input: Reacting to new input is a very mechanistic process inside of a Computer. Even the Thermostat in your house reacts to changing temperatures by cycling the system on and off. But the Thermostat Knows nothing about hot and cold, and does not Understand what it is doing. The same is true for any Reactions a Computer might take with regard to new Inputs.
Understand and Solve problems: As stated above, even something as simple as 1 + 1 = 2 can be solved, but the Computer does not have any way to Understand it. A Computer can calculate moves in Chess but there is no Understanding of what it is doing. It is all just Mindless algorithms calculating.
Understand Abstract and Complex Ideas: A Computer can be programmed, for example, to calculate results for simulations of Quantum Mechanics, but a Computer has no way to Understand the Quantum Mechanics or the simulations.
Understand and Produce new ideas: Even if a Computer could be programmed to produce what might seem like new Ideas, the Computer would not Understand the new Idea or even Know it ever produced the new Idea.
Understand, Find, and Use rules: A Computer could be programmed to Find Rules and Use Rules but it will never Understand the Rules. This is a very Mechanistic process.
Understand and Make Decisions: A computer can be programmed so that it appears to be making certain types of decisions but it will never Understand the Decisions. It will not even Know that it made a Decision.
The missing element with all of the above Intelligence tasks is Consciousness. It is that Deeper activity of Conscious Understanding that is needed. Even Brains do not Understand without a Connection to Consciousness. So I am going to suggest that if an entity (Computer or Brain) does not Understand and Know what it is doing, it cannot really be Intelligent.
Further consideration of this shows, that for there to be Intelligence associated with Artificial Intelligence (AI), the AI must be Connected to Consciousness. A Human can provide the Connection to Consciousness by reading the output from the Computer and using the Human Brain Connection to Consciousness to Understand and Know what the AI has produced. All output from any Computer based AI is not Intelligent until the output is Understood and Known by a Conscious Entity. No AI should ever be allowed to make any important Decision without Conscious Entity supervision. Self Driving Cars will need a Connection to Consciousness before I will be comfortable riding in them.
I think one of the lessons that LLMs has taught us is that part of what we always thought required “intelligence” does not require actual consciousness. Lots of AI experts are using the term “reasoning” now to mean this higher order logic that very closely approximates consciousness-based intelligence but is doing so without any qualia or first-person experience.
Another way to understand this is to just think of LLMs as being a way to extract knowledge out of training examples and create a ‘representation’ of it.
Personally I think we will be able to achieve AGI, in this same way, were the model simulates consciousness, feelings, logic, and reason, all without having any consciousness at all. So I think to conflate the concept of true AGI with consciousness is a mistake. They are two very different things.
Greetings, OpenAI Community!
I’m thrilled to introduce an innovative theoretical framework that reimagines our understanding of the universe’s fundamental workings. By stepping away from time-centric physics, this theory embraces a novel approach centered around state vectors, interaction tensors, and conservation operators to explore the universe’s dynamics.
Why It Matters:
Our current models of physics, deeply rooted in time, sometimes struggle to explain the complexities of the quantum world and the vastness of cosmology. This theory proposes a shift in perspective that could unlock new insights into longstanding puzzles, from quantum entanglement to the expansion of the universe.
The Role of AI:
Leveraging advanced AI, specifically the latest GPT models, we have the opportunity to explore this theory’s implications, solve intricate problems, and potentially revolutionize our understanding of physical laws. AI’s capacity to process complex, multidimensional data makes it an ideal tool for delving into a time-independent framework of physics.
Next Steps:
I’m looking to connect with like-minded individuals and experts for collaboration, discussion, and exploration of this theory’s potential. If you’re interested in pushing the boundaries of physics and AI, let’s join forces.
Invitation to Collaborate and Explore:
This journey is just beginning, and collaboration is key to unraveling the full potential of this groundbreaking approach. If you’re intrigued by the prospect of redefining our understanding of the universe, diving into the depths of quantum mechanics without the traditional anchor of time, or leveraging AI to push the frontiers of physics, I invite you to join me.
To facilitate deeper exploration and discussion, I’ve been working with a specialized GPT model trained to rethink physics concepts through the lens of state vectors, interaction tensors, and conservation operators. This GPT serves as an educational and exploratory tool, designed to challenge traditional views and foster a deeper understanding of the universe from a time-independent perspective.
Check out the “Theory of everything GPT” in the GPT list
How to Engage:
For those interested in diving deeper, I encourage you to engage directly with this GPT model. Here’s how we can collaborate:
Discussion and Idea Exchange: Share your insights, propose hypotheses, or discuss the implications of a time-independent approach to physics directly in this forum. Let’s stimulate a thought-provoking exchange.
Direct Interaction: I’m looking to organize virtual sessions where participants can interact with the GPT model, pose questions, and explore the theory’s nuances through AI-generated responses. Your participation and feedback would be invaluable.
Joint Research and Development: There’s an open invitation for researchers, scientists, and enthusiasts to collaborate on further developing this theory, utilizing the GPT model for simulations, problem-solving, and theoretical expansion.
Your Contribution Matters:
Whether you bring expertise in physics, a knack for AI, or simply a curious and open mind, your contribution can help shape this exploratory journey. Together, we can explore uncharted territories of knowledge and challenge the very foundations of physics with AI as our compass.
Reach Out:
If you’re intrigued and wish to be part of this innovative venture, please reach out. Let’s embark on this exciting journey together and uncover the secrets of the universe with fresh eyes and open minds.
Thank you for considering this bold exploration. I look forward to your thoughts, questions, and contributions. Let the adventure into the unknown begin!