Artificial Consciousness Group 3 Mohit, Raghuvar, Avin, Aniruddha
Dec 21, 2015
What is Consciousness?
Consciousness denotes being awake and responsive to one's environment; this contrasts with being asleep or being in a coma
Being self-aware
Derives from Latin conscienta which primarily means moral conscience
Aspects of Consciousness
Awareness Awareness of one's environment and one's own
existence
Anticipation The ability to predict foreseeable events
Learning The ability to learn from experience
Aspects of Consciousness (contd) Sentience
Utilization of sensory organs
Sapience Ability of an entity to act with judgment
Types of consciousness
Phenomenal Experience (Qualia) Hard part
Access Verbal report Reasoning Control of behavior Easy part
Hard Problem of Consciousness Explain how flows and electrochemical
processes in the brain give rise to the inner experience of subjective awareness.
Neural correlate of Consciousness
Artificial Consciousness (AC)
Consciousness in machine
Engineering artifacts which possess Self awareness Wisdom Ability to learn Ability to Sense
Why Artificial Consciousness? Creating machines resembling human beings
Understanding the nature of consciousness
Implementing more efficient control systems.
Goals of Artificial Consciousness Twofold target in Artificial Consciousness:
The nature of phenomenal consciousness The active role of consciousness in controlling
and planning the behaviour of an agent
Important Question Is Artificial Consciousness possible?
Outline
Raghuvar Why AC may not be possible?
Avin How to build a Conscious System?
Aniruddha Applications and Future Work
Several key questions...
Can computers think or do they just calculate?
Is consciousness a human prerogative? Does consciousness depend on the material
that comprises the human brain, or can computer hardware replicate consciousness?
Is simulation of consciousness the same as consciousness?
Turing test
Test for machine’s ability to demonstrate intelligence
Machine and human in separate room converse with a human interrogator
Goal is to convince him that you are human Annual competition : Loebner Prize
($100,000) to computer that passes : no winners yet!
Turing Test :implications
Main argument: If a computer can portray itself as a human
successfully, then essentially there is no difference between a human and a computer
Ability to actively process linguistic syntax, infer context, have the notion of ‘self’, deal with a finite knowledge base and moral questions
The computer is conscious!!....or is it?
Chinese Room
Person inside the room is a non-speaker of Chinese
He is given Chinese symbols corresponding to questions
Instruction book in English telling him which symbol he has to output corresponding to the input
To the outside world, he’s an excellent speaker of Chinese
Searle, 1984
Brains cause minds. Syntax is not sufficient for semantics. Computer programs are entirely defined by
their formal, or syntactical, structure. Minds have mental contents; specifically,
they have semantic contents.
Searle’s argument
(1) If Strong AI is true, then there is a program for Chinese such that if any computing system runs that program, that system thereby comes to understand Chinese
(2) I could run a program for Chinese without thereby coming to understand Chinese.
(3) Therefore Strong AI is false.
Widely debated by philosophers and scientists.
No conclusion as to whether it is possible to develop a truly conscious machine
Computational Barrier
Minimum level of computation necessary to achieve human like consciousness: can be calculated using Neural networks The human brain has about 1012 neurons, and each
neuron makes about 103 synaptic connections with other neurons, on average, for a total of 1015 synapses.
Neural Network : each synapse : 4bytes 1015 synapses : 4million GB Add auxiliary variables : 5 million GB !
Minimum prerequisite : Necessary, not sufficient condition
Consciousness System - Imitation and Self-others distinction System for generating consciousness Implementation of imitation behavior
important as the first stage of study of consciousness
Distinguish between self and others Consciousness generated by
consistency of cognition and behavior
Structure of a Consciousness System Consciousness
System comprises of :
a) Cognition Systemb) Behavior Systemc) Primary
Representationd) Symbolic
Representation
Cognition System
Information enters the consciousness system at Input and reaches the Cognition System
Used for neural computation together with the information from BL (internal information)
Derived information transmitted to RL (cognized information)
Language labels have different areas for condition of self and others
Behavior System
Behavior information from BL passes to the Behavior System
Information added to input and sensory information by neural computation
Resultant information is transmitted to Output to implement a behavior
Primary Representation
Common area for the cognition and behavior system
Behavior learning during cognition and cognition learning during behavior
Each piece of information is correctly related to language labels of symbolic representation
The consciousness system brings a process of artificial thoughts as information is circulated
Example – Human Language
Conversation between self and other Input: the speech of both self and the other Somatic sensation that self is talking is fed
back as input Behavior of a new language label (through
circulation) gives rise to thinking and expectations
Possible to offer new topics for conversation.
Consciousness through Imitation Mirror neurons
Brain of monkeys Neuron fires when implementing a certain behavior by
itself or upon observing others with the same behavior Primary representation equivalent to mirror neuron
Imitation occurs while information circulates through primary and symbolic representation
Circulation of information through external models and one’s own brain is necessary for imitation
Features of NN in a consciousness system Two structural features to implement
consistency of cognition and behavior Recursiveness - Somatic sensation of behavior of
self is fed back to enhance learning efficiency Presence of a common area for cognition and
behavior and data circulation
Imitation learning and cognition of behavior of self and others possible
Back propagation (BP) method of supervised learning used for NN learning through simulation
Ongoing Research
Hot research area in AI
Several serious attempts to make conscious machines Franklin’s Intelligent Distribution Agent Ron Sun's cognitive architecture CLARION Haikonen’s cognitive architecture
Cognitive Robots
Intelligent Distribution Agent
Negotiate new assignments for sailors in the US Navy
Interacts with Navy databases and communicates with the sailors via natural language email dialog
Based on Global Workspace Theory - Baars Relies heavily on codelets Not attributed as conscious
CLARION
Fundamental structures of the human mind Distinction between conscious and unconscious
mental processes Bottom-up learning - learning that involves acquiring
first implicit knowledge and then acquiring explicit knowledge on its basis)
Successful in accounting for a variety of psychological data
Skill learning tasks : SRT, AGL, PC, CI
Haikonen’s cognitive architecture Rule-based computing inadequate for
achieving AC A special cognitive architecture Artificial neuron A low-complexity implementation of the
architecture proposed (2004) Not capable of AC – but exhibit emotions as
expected
Conscious Robots
Evolution of Conscious Robots: Simple reflex Simple reflex with memory Perception with meaning and associative
memory Perception with associative memory and
report The robot perceives itself perceiving
Cognitive Robots Sensors, path planning, and manipulator design and
control vs ability to reason, act and perceive
Able to “know what they are doing”
Consciousness per se does not make any sense unless accompanied by end to end processes like perception and behavior.
Future cognitive robots will be able to interact with humans, acting and learning in unpredictable environments.
Cognitive Robots Applications Service robots, social robots, and personal
assistance robots (like Maggie) Assistant robots for disabled people (like Asibot) Human-like performing robots (like Manfred) Autonomous space exploration robots and robotic
assistance for orbital assembly and repair (like Robonaut)
Robocup players Autonomous emergency and rescue robots (like
BEAR)
Open questions
Someday, when machines claim they are conscious, will we believe them?
Will we be able to “test” consciousness? Could machines become “deluded” that they
are conscious? Could the World Wide Web be a form of
Consciousness?
Summary
Artificial consciousness will lead to intelligent and more useful agents
Difficult to understand and validate Attempts to model consciousness through a
neural network Field of intensive research and philosophical
debate in the years to come
References
Block, N. On a confusion about a function of consciousness. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 18 (2): 227-287, 1995
Buttazzo, G. Artificial Consciousness: Utopia or Real Possibility? Spectrum IEEE Computer 18: 24-30, 2001
Conscious Robot That Distinguishes between Self and Others and Implements Imitation Behavior
18th International Conference on Industrial and Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems,2005
Franklin ,S. IDA: A Conscious Artifact? Journal of Consciousness Studies 10:47-66,2003
Wikipedia