A New Artificial Intelligence 9

1. A New Artificial Intelligence 9 Kevin Warwick

2. Growing Brains - Philosophy Philosophy of AI has been based (almost entirely) on comparisons between silicon and carbon – Humans – v – Computers. Last time we considered biological AI Can we pull some philosophical nuggets from classical AI philosophy?

3. Future? We will need more robots/tech around the home Maybe have human neurone brain Loved one/yourself? Bipeds/humanoids Emotions – Consciousness?

4. Ongoing Further Senses Further Motor Skills Human Studies 24/7/365 Operation Day 1 immersion in body Memory relationships Effects of environment on learning 3-D operation – 30 Million neurones Alive?

5. Dreaming • When the culture is disembodied, does it dream? • If not, what is it thinking about? • What must it feel like to be the culture? • Do the firings relate to previously experienced sensory stimulation that it is reliving? • Does a brain need external stimulating signals in order to subsequently make up stories in itself? • If more stimulating signals are applied, of a different type, will such disembodied signals be more and/or different?

6. Donate your neurons I • The use of human neurones does though throw up other possibilities and questions. • Rather than obtaining the neurones from embryos it may be that you would be willing to donate your own neurones – either before or after death. • Would you like to live on in a physical robot body? • Your neurones would not have to be dissociated; they could be fed and laid out on the electrode array as slices.

7. Donate your neurons II • Possibly some memories would remain, if your experience as a human remained to some extent. • Are these Moravec’s ideas about re-embodying a human brain in a robot body? • Maybe it’s time to ask for a volunteer to see what it’s like to suddenly find yourself in a robot body, with robot senses and robot movement. • But unless we can sort out an effective communication route, the new you would not be able to tell anyone what it was like.

8. Consciousness • We cannot go far in our investigation of culturing robot brains before we need to ask the question as to whether or not the brain experiences consciousness. • A typical brain of this type, on a 2-Dimensional array, contains around 100,000 neurones. • Nothing like the 100 billion neurones (typical) housed in a human brain. • For those who feel size is important then maybe consciousness cannot YET be considered.

9. 3-D growth • New lattice culturing methods allow for a 3-D culture to be kept alive and grown. • A 3 D volume culture embodied gives a robot brain with 30 million neurones. • A 4,000x4,000 2 D structure (16 million neurones) results in a 3 D brain consisting of over 60 billion neurones – more than half the size of a typical human brain and - given the typical human neurone death rate – not far from that of an elderly human. • Probably such a robot brain would be more powerful (in terms of numbers of neurones and connectivity) than that of a stroke patient for whom a whole section of their brain has experienced neuronal death.

10. Voting rights • How do we consider the consciousness of our robot when it has a brain which consists of 60 billion densely packed, highly connected and developed HUMAN neurones? • Can we endow it with genuine understanding and (Penrose) “genuine intelligence” • If so, we will definitely have to think about giving the robot voting rights, allowing it to become a politician or a philosophy professor if it wants to and the possibility of putting it in prison if it does something it shouldn’t.

11. Not conscious? • What are the arguments against our robot being conscious? • Is 60 billion still not 100 billion and that’s it? • If so, we will need to start counting the number of brain cells in each person’s head such that those whose total falls below a threshold (let’s say 80 billion) will find themselves dropped from the human race on the grounds that they are no longer a conscious being. • Perhaps we will need some basic test of communication such as the Turing Test - everyone must achieve a basic standard in order to avoid the cut and what – be incinerated? • Unfortunately on this basis my mother, who has latter stage dementia, would have long since found herself burned to a crisp.

12. English cooking • Could it be emotional responses are important instead? • If the robot has human neurones couldn’t it experience similar emotions to humans? • Maybe our robot must have the same sensory input as humans to be conscious? - now audio input is being given to such robots and smell is another possibility along with touch and vision • Only difficulty appears to be taste, due to its subjectivity. • There are many humans who have a poor sense of taste – some suggest that the English have no sense of taste • Yet we do not suggest that all people who have no sense of taste (possibly the English!) are not conscious – or those who are blind or have a hearing deficiency • Sensory input in itself is not critical to one’s status as a conscious being.

13. Motor skills • More contentious would be an argument suggesting that motor skills are important to consciousness. • The robot moves around quickly on wheels. • Most humans move on two legs and manipulate with two arms. • Some humans move around on wheels – the world record for the marathon is held by a wheelchair athlete! • Some humans have no arms or have robot arms – Campbell Aird • Then there are those who have contracted Motor Neurone Disease and have limited movement abilities due to a malfunction in that specific part of their brain. • It would be horrendous to suggest that any such humans, e.g. Stephen Hawking, are not conscious beings. • Motor skills cannot be considered as a tester for consciousness. • A culture is being given a biped walking robot body, with arms and hands that can grasp and pick up – overall the robot may soon have better performance abilities than many humans.

14. Call it a ‘robot’ • We have an entity with a robot body and a brain of human brain cells, which I call a robot. • Because the creature has a physical robot body is not a sufficient reason to claim that it is not a conscious being. • Because I call it a ‘robot’ is also not a creditable reason for us to deny that it is conscious. • Otherwise I could start referring to the entity as a ‘human’ and we would have to agree that it is conscious. • You would be deferring your judgement on an entity’s consciousness to what I might happen to call it. • If I started to refer to you as a robot then maybe you would not be conscious because of what I was calling you. • So your opinion wouldn’t matter anyway! • What I/we call an entity is not a sufficient classifier on which to base our decision on its consciousness.

15. Functionality • In a human brain, neurones take on particular roles – motor, sensory etc • Some might argue this is important for consciousness • But .. In the cultured brain – exactly the same thing happens

16. Nature & Nurture • We are left with the two critical properties of nature and nurture – arguably the basic elements of human intelligence. • By bringing the robot to life with its biological brain, we can then monitor 24/7/365 its entire embodied life experiences in terms of sensory inputs and motor outputs. • The research target is to relate these witnessed experiences with the internal structural development of the brain. • Linking environmental experiences, which we can control, with brain development will then, we hope, give us a much more detailed picture of how memories are both formed a retrieved.

17. Education • So are we going to deny our robot its consciousness because of its educational background? • It didn’t have the appropriate experiences or perhaps it didn’t go to the right school – therefore it is not a conscious being • We will have to start looking at the education of humans and deny some the basic rights of others because they went to the ‘wrong’ school. • Education/nurture cannot be used as a basic argument against our robot’s consciousness. In fact, even the present robot, as it is moving around in the lab, is obtaining a University education!

18. Nature • What we are left with is the concept of nature. • How an entity comes into being must be important as to whether or not that entity is conscious. • If this is not the important issue then surely we will have to admit that the robot is conscious. • At present it does not appear possible to bring such a robot to life through some form of sexual act between two humans. • But we allow for techniques such as test tube babies and even cloning in conscious humans. • But human neurones which actually constitute the brain cells of the robot came about very likely through the sexual act • The only difference between the robot brain and a human brain is therefore merely down to the length of gesticulation – but this would seem to be a weak line to draw for a strong division in decision making with regard to an entity’s state of consciousness – especially when we consider the situation of premature babies.

19. Discrimination • It is extremely difficult if not impossible, on any scientific basis, to exclude our robot from the class of conscious entities. • Because its brain is made up of only human neurones it is extremely difficult to find grounds on which to discriminate against it • It may well be nearer the human norm than some disadvantaged human individuals.

20. Searle “The brain is an organ like any other; it is an organic machine. Consciousness is caused by lower-level neuronal processes in the brain and is itself a feature of the brain.” Searle also talks of an emergent property, which implies the more neurons there are, with greater complexity, so this eventually results in the form of consciousness exhibited by humans. If our robot has a brain of several billion highly connected human neurones then by Searle’s argument we must assume that it will have a form of consciousness that is pretty much on terms with humans, whatever its physical embodiment.

21. Responsibility • With a robot whose brain is based on billions of human neurones, the robot will have more brain cells than a cat, dog or chimpanzee. • To keep such animals there are regulations, rules and laws. • The animal must be respected and treated reasonably well • The needs of the animal must be attended to – they are taken out for walks, given large areas to use as their own or actually exist (in the wild) under no human control. • Surely a human neurone robot must have these rights and more? • Surely it cannot be treated as a ‘thing’ in the lab? • If the incubator is left open and the robot dies (as defined by brain death) should someone be held responsible and face the consequences.

22. Robot rights • What rights should such a robot have? • Should we endow it with citizenship? • Do we need to protect it by law or is the whole thing simply a bunch of academics having fun? • If you are the robot and it is you who have been brought to life in your robot body, by a scientist in a laboratory, and that scientist is in complete control of your existence it must be an absolutely terrifying experience. • It will not be long before such robots are actually brought into being • As a scientist is it acceptable for me to quite simply take the life of a robot with 60 billion (or more) human neurones, if I so wish?

23. Size matters • A 300x300 neurone layout results in a 90,000 neurone culture when developed in 2 D • This is 27 million neurones in a 3 D structure. • When developed to a 5,000x5,000 neurone layout, it results in a 25 million culture in 2 D and 125 billion in a 3 D lattice. • Moving forward to a 7,500x7,500 layout, in 2 D this achieves a 56.25 million culture which becomes 421 billion neurones in 3 D – an individual brain which contains four times the number of neurones as a human brain.

24. Super Searle • By Searle’s argument – human consciousness emerges as a property of our 100 billion neurones • If we now have a robot with over 400 billion neurones, will it have a form of super consciousness?

25. You are a robot • Put yourself in the position of the robot. • Your brain is more powerful than that of the scientists who created you. • Yet you still have to carry out the mind numbing tasks required of you everyday by those same scientists. • Would you put up with it? Would you not complain? • Remember your whole life is spent in the laboratory. Wouldn’t you want to get out just once in a while, no matter what it might take to do so? • With those intellectual capabilities (or more) surely you could figure out a way. But what would you do if someone tried to stop you? Would you meekly return to the lab and see out your days in utter boredom or ………..

26. Contact Information Web site: www.kevinwarwick.com Email: k.warwick@reading.ac.uk Tel: (44)-1189-318210 Fax: (44)-1189-318220 Professor Kevin Warwick, Department of Cybernetics, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AY,UK