James F. McGrath

A lot of times people ask me why I’m so vocal and against the idea of treating AIs like people. It isn’t alive. It isn’t conscious. It isn’t aware. It doesn’t feel. It does not care about the repercussions of its actions. But the moment humans start treating AI as such, not only is it just flat out wrong, but it is dangerous. Giving AIs any rights at all would be a logical step if we created a life form, deserving of equality, but we didn’t. This Delaware proposal is incredibly dangerous and beyond ridiculous and it needs to stop. So I’ve been trying to raise awareness about this, and every time I do, people get either offended, challenge the meaning of words like “consciousness”, say it’s just like us, or believe in science fiction. Stop it. Just stop it. If you don’t understand how AI works and its limitations, then please listen to people who do. AI (LLMs) are just fancy computer programs design to generalize and complete tokens based on its training data. Don’t believe they are more than that unless you have actual evidence. You won’t find the evidence, because there is none. LLMs are great tools for humans, but it isn’t alive and it doesn’t magically have a soul. People saying otherwise have either something to gain from that claim or they don’t truly understand these systems; yes, this includes some people who even work at these AI companies. Think of what happens if AI is granted legal rights and property ownership (which would happen if AI can run businesses)… Think about which AI models people and companies are allowed to use… Think about who ends up benefiting most from this... Think about how the prompter or person/company pulling the strings behind it, becomes shielded from liability… It all comes back to the argument about consciousness, self awareness, emotions, and people who believe that AIs and LLMs are some amazing new form of life. It isn’t, don’t fall for it.