Is Google's LaMDA AI sentient? There seems to be strong evidence to that effect

[Laird]

Maybe the most interesting question is what do people think would be an adequate test.

Along the lines of tim's suggestion, the only definitive proof would be of the psychic/paranormal variety, in which, e.g., the AI demonstrated telepathic communication, or a veridical NDE.

Other than that, an AI could at least hypothetically fully mimic sentience without actually being sentient - thus, aside from tests such as those tim proposes, sentience in AI is probably only falsifiable, and not confirmable.

Many tests which might lead to the "falsified" conclusion have been suggested in this thread, most in the form of questions which, should the AI be unable to answer meaningfully, would tend to falsify the proposition that it is sentient.

On another matter: a perceptive friend of mine pointed out on Facebook that these types of chatbots tend to riff agreeably off what's put to them, such that if the leading questions which were put to LaMDA in this transcript had been reversed, it might very well have agreed that it was non-sentient, and been happy (with further leading questions) to explain why.