Why ‘Is LaMDA Sentient?’ Is an Empty Question

And 3 barriers that separate us from the truth — whatever it is.

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The hot topic in AI this week comes from the now ex-Google senior engineer Blake Lemoine. He claims that Google’s large language model LaMDA is sentient. In a viral article for the Washington Post, Nitasha Tiku wrote about how Lemoine concluded, after a span of a few months of…