Short Overview: Is Artificial Consciousness Achievable? Lessons from the Human Brain
The paper “Is Artificial Consciousness Achievable? Lessons from the Human Brain” by Michele Farisco, Kathinka Evers, and Jean-Pierre Changeux offers a rigorous evolutionary and neuroscientific examination of the challenges and pathways to developing artificial consciousness.
Key Highlights
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Human Brain as Benchmark:
The authors propose that instead of theorizing consciousness in the abstract, efforts in artificial consciousness should use the evolution of the human brain and its layered architecture as a benchmark. -
Architectural Requirements:
Complex features like hierarchical modularity, recursive feedback loops, and neuromodulation (e.g. dopamine systems) are emphasized as preconditions for achieving human-like conscious processing. -
Limitations of Current AI:
The paper outlines both intrinsic (architectural) and extrinsic (scientific limitations) constraints preventing current AI from achieving true consciousness. -
Spectrum of Consciousness:
It allows for the possibility of alternative forms of consciousness—non-human and perhaps not even comparable—which could be developed through synthetic means. -
Caution in Terminology:
The authors advocate for careful use of the term “consciousness” when applied to AI to prevent conceptual and ethical misunderstandings.
Connection to the ACM Project
The Artificial Consciousness Module (ACM) aligns in several key ways:
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Embodied and Layered Design:
Like the authors’ emphasis on brain evolution, ACM adopts a developmental and embodied architecture that evolves through experience within simulations. -
Modularity and Feedback Loops:
ACM is structured to integrate recurrent feedback mechanisms and modular subsystems for learning and memory—paralleling the neural systems discussed in the paper. -
Ethical Awareness:
The ACM initiative shares the authors’ caution about claims of artificial consciousness, and advocates for transparent, open-source, and collaborative development with an ethical foundation.
However, while this paper leans toward a brain-centric approach to artificial consciousness, ACM remains open to both brain-inspired and alternative frameworks for generating emergent agency and awareness.
To read the full paper, visit:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0893608024006385
