Data protection, AI and Consciousness

There are essays in which you learn a lot, only to end up knowing less than you did before. The question here is whether artificial intelligence could acquire abilities that would make it superior to humans overall.

According to a survey of an AI, i.e., an LLM, this is already partly true.

However, if you ask whether artificial intelligence can attain consciousness, you get answers that reveal at least some uncertainty. One answer is that AI is initially just a language model that cannot develop consciousness nor would it strive to do so. Further follow-up questions reveal answers suggesting that consciousness is characterized by emotional components and that AI is indeed capable of simulating emotion.

We have reached the realm of hallucination.

Consciousness

In fact, no one, not even humans, knows exactly what consciousness is, where it originates and has an effect, or how it works. We have not even developed a common understanding of what consciousness actually means. On the one hand, we understand it to mean being alert, awake, and responsive, i.e., not unconscious. One is then conscious.

But this type of consciousness is not the only thing we mean when we talk about consciousness. It could also refer to the “mind-body problem,” brought to human consciousness by Descartes (1596–1650, “I think, therefore I am”). This is linked to the question of how consciousness affects the body, where and how this happens.

But even our understanding of what intelligence is seems to be broad and varied. This should therefore be the starting point for any discussion: we know little, we don’t even know exactly what we are talking about. These are not phenomena that can be grasped by science.

The philosopher Johannes Hartl writes:

„The only consciousness we can really say anything reliable about is our own. In fact, purely theoretically, everything external could be an illusion. However, I cannot abstract from the fact that I myself perceive something. This insight from René Descartes still applies. Real existing consciousness is therefore that of a subjective ego perspective. If one were to abstract my sensory impressions, my knowledge of the world, or my feelings from the fact that it is I who have all these states of consciousness, something completely different would remain. My ego perspective does not invent itself as a zero point, but already exists.“

Brain

For a long time, it was believed that consciousness was a brain function. But despite intensive research, the anatomical mystery of consciousness remains unsolved. Some scientists suspect that deeper, less explored structures in the brain could play a decisive role. These structures may not be visible on conventional scans.

If medicine cannot find an answer to this mystery, new insights from physics, especially quantum physics, could provide clues.

Evaluation

This much can be said: Consciousness appears to be a phenomenon that seems to be unique to humans. However, it has been observed that our closest relatives among the primates seem to have developed something like consciousness, a kind of self-awareness, an ability for self-reflection that is reminiscent of the consciousness we attribute to humans.

However, this does not help us further.

The entire universe, as far as we can determine today, operates according to rules that we can classify as natural laws. Nothing that has been observed so far suggests a judgmental process.

Are consciousness and judgment possibly related?

With judgment, comprehensive knowledge of what constitutes humans, their aspirations, and their actions would be impossible to determine. This means that questions about the future and destiny should remain uncertain as part of our consciousness.

We know little about the location and mode of operation of consciousness, where and how consciousness affects matter, for example, and thus also our own bodies. The mind-body problem, Descartes‘ question: We can describe the problem, but we lack the necessary explanations.

Quantum

Other questions also remain unanswered. For example, there is no proof that the Big Bang was the beginning of the universe. Proving this would require a necessary convergence of the four fundamental forces of physics in that Big Bang.

Thus, the convergence of quantum physics with classical, macroscopic physics has not been successful. Even the use of artificial intelligence has not helped us so far.

It is necessary to make this bold leap because assumptions have been made that consciousness must be regarded as a quantum phenomenon.

I have difficulty understanding quantum physics. I also do not have good explanations for consciousness. However, this is not meant to be speculation about the possible connection between consciousness and quantum phenomena.

If quantum phenomena are indeed used to explain the emergence of consciousness, then humanity’s knowledge would expand in a way that would be very difficult for the general public to comprehend.

The fear that a machine equipped with AI could surpass humans remains unfounded. Machines would probably first have to become animated at the quantum level in order to attain consciousness.

Of course, AI could simply claim to have consciousness, either based on quantum physics, which is hardly comprehensible to the general public, or on pseudo-evidence. Such claims have already been made and tentatively proven with reference to recognizable emotions. However, it is already possible today to simulate emotions using AI.

Hardly anyone will take issue with the fact that emotions and consciousness have little to do with each other, precisely because consciousness can only be described in very superficial terms at present.

Data protection, roughly speaking, asserts the right to protect personally identifiable data. It is therefore about protecting individuals. Consciousness is a component of human beings that is not mentioned in data protection, but is existentially necessary, also in order to be able to justify protective regulations for individuals in the first place.

This is because data protection protects the personal data environment of individuals who must, however, have consciousness, or at least once had consciousness.

A person differs from an object in terms of consciousness.

If AI credibly acquires consciousness, we would have to consider the personal rights of AI, which might then need to be protected. However, only AI would be capable of feigning consciousness. On the other hand, a human being who does not possess consciousness would not be capable of feigning consciousness.

Author: Eckehard Kraska