this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2025
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193
An Alarming Number of Gen Z Ai Users Think It's Conscious (www.pcmag.com)
submitted 1 day ago by Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

An alarming number of Hollywood screenwriters believe consciousness (sapience, self awareness, etc.) is a measurable thing or a switch we can flip.

At best consciousness is a sorites paradox. At worst, it doesn't exist and while meat brains can engage in sophisticated cognitive processes, we're still indistinguishable from p-zombies.

I think the latter is more likely, and will reveal itself when AGI (or genetically engineered smat animals) can chat and assemble flat furniture as well as humans can.

(On mobile. Will add definition links later.)

[–] Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I'd rather not break down a human being to the same level of social benefit as an appliance.

Perception is one thing, but the idea that these things can manipulate and misguide people who are fully invested in whatever process they have, irks me.

I've been on nihilism hill. It sucks. I think people, and living things garner more genuine stimulation than a bowl full of matter or however you want to boil us down.

Oh, people can be bad, too. There's no doubting that, but people have identifiable motives. What does an Ai "want?"

whatever it's told to.

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 12 points 7 hours ago

Same generation who takes astrology seriously, I’m shocked

[–] WalnutLum@lemmy.ml 13 points 8 hours ago

I wish philosophy was taught a bit more seriously.

An exploration on the philosophical concepts of simulacra and eidolons would probably change the way a lot of people view LLMs and other generative AI.

[–] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works 18 points 10 hours ago

Lots of people lack critical thinking skills

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago

If they mistake those electronic parrots for conscious intelligencies, they probably won't be the best judges for rating such things.

[–] shaggyb@lemmy.world 37 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I think an alarming number of Gen Z internet folks find it funny to skew the results of anonymous surveys.

[–] cornshark@lemmy.world 0 points 6 hours ago

Yeah, what is it with GenZ? Millenials would never skew the results of anonymous surveys

[–] shiroininja@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I’ve been hearing a lot about gen z using them for therapists, and I find that really sad and alarming.

AI is the ultimate societal yes man. It just parrots back stuff from our digital bubble because it’s trained on that bubble.

[–] cornshark@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

Chatgpt disagrees that it's a yes-man:

To a certain extent, AI is like a societal “yes man.” It reflects and amplifies patterns it's seen in its training data, which largely comes from the internet—a giant digital mirror of human beliefs, biases, conversations, and cultures. So if a bubble dominates online, AI tends to learn from that bubble.

But it’s not just parroting. Good AI models can analyze, synthesize, and even challenge or contrast ideas, depending on how they're used and how they're prompted. The danger is when people treat AI like an oracle, without realizing it's built on feedback loops of existing human knowledge—flawed, biased, or brilliant as that may be.

[–] coffeeismydrug@lemm.ee 10 points 12 hours ago

to be honest they probably wish it was conscious because it has more of a conscience than conservatives and capitalists

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 8 points 11 hours ago

An Alarming Number of Anyone Believes Fortune Cookies

Just ... accept it, superstition is in human nature. When you take religion away from them, they need something, it'll either be racism/fascism, or expanding conscience via drugs, or belief in UFOs, or communism at least, but they need something.

The last good one was the digital revolution, globalization, world wide web, all that, no more wars (except for some brown terrorists, but the rest is fine), everyone is free and civilized now (except for those with P*tin as president and other such types, but it's just an imperfect democracy don't you worry), SG-1 series.

Anything changing our lives should have an intentionally designed religious component, or humans will improvise that where they shouldn't.

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