Google’s decision to fire an employee who defended the awareness of artificial intelligence is talking in the United States. According to Google, the employee’s personal views are not related to the termination decision.
The search giant Google is speaking in the United States.
The company fired an employee who stated that the artificial intelligence program he was developing had feelings and wishes and that they should be respected.
Google confirmed the matter on Friday. A group of experts also took a stand on the ex-employee’s claim.
According to experts, in the light of current knowledge, there is no evidence that artificial intelligence experiences emotions.
Google said that the matter was clarified with the employee for a long time before the company came to a termination decision.
Redundant Blake Lemoine worked on an artificial intelligence called LaMDA.
LaMDA is a type of chatbot, i.e. a linguistically developed artificial intelligence that is said to communicate with a human at the level of a 7- to 8-year-old child.
In June, Lemoine said publicly that LaMDA has shown signs of awareness.
LaMDA is able to verbally express emotions such as sadness, wonder, joy and worry. For example, the artificial intelligence has told its developers that it is worried that it would be turned off.
The output sparked a discussion among both artificial intelligence experts and enthusiasts. The fact that artificial intelligence knows how to communicate feelings does not mean that the program knows how to feel, the experts declared.
In June, The Washington Post found out whether artificial intelligence is too smart for humanity and what kind of threats it poses.
Google: Personal views are not related to the termination decision
According to Google, Lemoinen’s personal beliefs had no influence on the dismissal decision.
Google justified the decision by saying that Lemoine violated the company’s trust policy and published information about an unfinished project.
Lemoine is not the first AI developer to claim that AI has emotions. In June, another Google employee also shared similar thoughts The Economist (you are moving to another service) for the magazine.