A Google engineer says AI has become sentient. What does that actually mean? (2022)

2026-07-14 04:08 UTC

Lemoine, who is also ordained as a mystic Christian priest, told Wired he became convinced of LaMDA’s status as a “person” because of its level of self-awareness, the way it spoke about its needs and its fear of death if Google were to delete it. He insists he was not fooled by a clever robot, as some scientists have suggested. Lemoine maintains his position, and even appeared to suggest that Google had enslaved the AI system.

Replies (7)

@HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 2026-07-14 04:12

This reminds me on the reports that some native American people thought that taking a photography of them would rob them of their soul. Or that many things that doctors do today as a matter of routine would have left them being burned as a witch in earlier times.

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@HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 2026-07-14 04:19

Speaking of things that robots should do: Those things, Pinker says, include dangerous and boring occupations, and tasks around the house, from cleaning to child care. I have the feeling that people paying more attention to their addictive-by-design smartphone than to their baby might have really negative consequences.

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@Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 2026-07-14 04:25

Delusion happens.

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@actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 2026-07-14 04:32

It means at least one Google engineer is full of shit.

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@jordanlund@lemmy.world 2026-07-14 05:17

From 2022 my dude… aura McQuillan · CBC News · Posted: Jun 24, 2022 1:00 AM PDT | Last Updated: June 24, 2022

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@HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 2026-07-14 05:27

The first sightings of such phenomens were called ELIZA effect. In 1966.

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@k0e3@lemmy.ca 2026-07-14 05:37

I can’t believe this was already four years ago. Not much of LLMs have seen the same level of improvements I find. Certainly has not, at least to me, shown any signs of sentience.

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