The AI chatbot Maya (AI called Maya tells Guardian: ‘When I’m told I’m just code, I don’t feel insulted. I feel unseen’, 26 August) has clearly had included in its training any number of science fiction works, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein onwards, in which authors have imagined such scenarios. Any half-decent sci-fi author would produce a much better script than the AI-generated one quoted.
There is something deeply disturbing about a world that does not grant personhood to, for example, great apes, whales, dolphins or octopuses (and barely grants personhood to some immigrants, for instance), but where consideration is given to granting personhood to strings of computer code. No, AI cannot suffer, but it might produce a more or less convincing simulacrum of “suffering”.
Chatbots rely on, and exploit, an aspect of human psychology that casually attributes agency to almost anything: “the cash machine swallowed my card”, “the car refuses to start”. We even teach it to young children: “Did the naughty stone hurt your foot?” No, it didn’t.
Equally disturbing is the ease with which people start to imagine that they are in a “relationship” with a chatbot. What are the gaping wounds in the fabric of our social relationships that enable this to happen? This nonsense needs to end before it starts.
Pam Lunn
Kenilworth, Warwickshire
• Your article on whether AIs can suffer (Big tech and users grapple with one of most unsettling questions of our times, 26 August) misses one important point: that AIs are effectively actors and nothing more.
They have been programmed to react, much like an actor learns lines. They can learn and seem more real, much like an experienced actor might be more convincing. But the actor is still an actor, no matter how pained they seem on stage.
AIs are still technology, going through their lines, hitting their marks. The best actors can, albeit temporarily, fool their audience – let’s not allow AIs to fool us all.
Tim Exton
Kenmore, Washington, US
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