The contrast problem and a triangulation approach to AI consciousness

Abstract

It has been suggested we may see conscious AI systems within the next few decades. Somewhat lost in these expectations is the fact that we still do not understand the nature of consciousness in humans, and we currently have as little empirical handle on how to measure the presence or absence of subjective experience in humans as we do in AI systems. In the history of consciousness research, no behaviour or cognitive function has ever been identified as a necessary condition for consciousness. For this reason, no behavioural marker exists for scientists to identify the presence or absence of consciousness ‘from the outside’. This results in a circularity in our measurements of consciousness. The problem is that we need to make an ultimately unwarranted assumption about who or what is conscious in order to create experimental contrasts and conduct studies that will ground our decisions about who or what is conscious. Call this the Contrast Problem. Here we explicate the contrast problem, highlight some upshots of it, and consider a way forward.

Keywords: Consciousness, AI, Measurement contrasts, Neural Correlates of Consiousness, NCC, Triangulation, Ascription of consciousness