Google fires software engineer who claimed its AI chatbot is sentient

(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google stated on Friday it has dismissed a senior software program engineer who claimed the corporate’s synthetic intelligence (AI) chatbot LaMDA was a self-aware individual.

Google, which positioned software program engineer Blake Lemoine on go away final month, stated he had violated firm insurance policies and that it discovered his claims on LaMDA to be “wholly unfounded.”

“It is regrettable that regardless of prolonged engagement on this matter, Blake nonetheless selected to persistently violate clear employment and knowledge safety insurance policies that embrace the necessity to safeguard product info,” a Google spokesperson stated in an electronic mail to Reuters.

Final yr, Google stated https://bit.ly/3Os9QqD that LaMDA – Language Mannequin for Dialogue Functions – was constructed on the corporate’s analysis exhibiting Transformer-based language fashions skilled on dialogue may be taught to speak about basically something.

Google and plenty of main scientists had been fast to dismiss Lemoine’s views as misguided, saying LaMDA is just a fancy algorithm designed to generate convincing human language.

Lemoine’s dismissal was first reported by Massive Know-how, a tech and society e-newsletter.

(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Enhancing by William Mallard)