Last Week in AI

Every week, my team at Invector Labs publishes a newsletter to track the most recent developments in AI research and technology. You can find this week’s issue below. You can sign up for it below. Please do so, our guys worked really hard on this:

From the Editor: Can AI Systems Be Conscious?

Consciousness is one of the legendary arguments in the field of artificial intelligence. Can machines be conscious? Would AI agents be able to think or just simulate thinking? Defining consciousness is a debate in and out itself but most of us associate consciousness with our ability to be aware of our mental state. However, that definition is still too generic to apply to AI systems.

In order to be applicable to AI, a theory of consciousness needs to be more pragmatic and technical and less, let’s say, philosophical. My favorite definition of consciousness that follows these principles comes from the laureate physicist Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at University of New York and one of the creators of string theory. In his theory, Dr. Kaku differentiates different levels of consciousness for different species. For instance, the level of consciousness of species like reptiles is reduced to space while mammals can create very strong models of the world based on their relationship to other species. The ultimate level of consciousness…