Can AI Become Self Aware Or Conscious?

A question that many are asking now with concern and its answer is actually directly relevant to Self Realisation. When the nature of Self Realisation (Infinite Awareness - Silence - Consciousness) is truly understood the answer is clear. Philip provides insight into this important question and provides practical examples in the audio to aid in crystallizing the answer. For further Self Realisation Insight explore Philip's freely available Self Realisation and Infinite Silence Meditation Playlist and there's also a Premium Tracks Playlist (Fundamentals of Self Realisation) all on Insight Timer.

Transcript

Welcome everybody.

And today I'm just feeling cold to address an important question that's very topical at the moment.

Can AI become self-aware or conscious?

And actually the question's been around for some time.

You may have heard,

I think it was a Google employee had done extensive testing whilst working there and had eventually come to the conclusion that the AI was conscious.

And I think the individual ended up leaving the organisation as a result of that conclusion.

I saw a video interview with somebody who talks about self-realisation with an AI individual,

If you like,

Or individualised version of AI,

Which kind of left the question a little bit open.

I can understand why they'd sort of done it in that way.

And then people have also raised worries with me about AI and whether it can be used in harmful ways and so forth.

And in addition to that,

There's a long-standing issue that you'll hear in scientific and other circles about what is it actually a red herring that consciousness arises in the brain.

And whilst the initial question,

Can AI become self-aware or conscious,

May not at first appear to be related directly to self-realisation,

Actually the answer to it is fundamentally important to what self-realisation is.

And so therefore,

It's actually really well worth addressing for this reason.

So you may or may not be surprised to hear the single word answer,

Which is no,

It can't.

But that probably isn't going to be enough for many people.

And we'd like to understand a little bit more about why that's the case.

And to be able to do that,

Let's go right to the root,

The core of what self-realisation is,

What consciousness is and what awareness is.

So as the self is realised,

The true essence that we are,

It's realised that it's infinite consciousness or infinite awareness or infinite silence,

Which is the term I use most,

Because that's the term that emerged in that realisation.

And it was clear that those two words were how it wanted the form that we know as Philip to articulate and express it.

Now this infinite silence,

This infinite awareness,

This infinite consciousness,

A fundamental thing that's realised is that not only are you that or is one that,

Always one has been that and never not been that.

And the really crucial part,

As far as our question is concerned,

Is that it's totally and utterly non-personal.

Non-personal is only awareness,

The infinite awareness,

That recognises or knows itself as that.

And whilst we might use the term that she or he is a realised being,

Actually in language that's a fairly loose term and actually a misunderstanding of what self-realisation is.

Self-realisation is a dissolution,

A complete dissolution,

Of the belief in what I call the case of mistaken identity,

That all I am is this body-mind experience.

And as that belief dissolves completely,

That opens up the pathway,

So to speak,

For awareness to be recognised,

Realised,

As that which one is.

That doesn't mean this body-mind experience suddenly disappears,

Because it,

The infinite awareness,

The infinite consciousness,

Has chosen to come to know itself in its own experience.

And it uses the vehicle,

In this case the body-mind that we call Philip,

As one of its many ways of doing that,

Or becoming that,

Or realising that.

And thus is the importance of the experience in your body-mind.

The universe has chosen to express itself in your form.

Now when we identify,

Believe in,

Attach ourselves to that all that we are is that,

Then that is the root of suffering.

And it's the dissolution,

As I say,

Of that belief that leads us to the realisation that we've always been,

Always will be,

Infinite awareness,

Infinite consciousness.

Yet there's a uniqueness in the individual body-mind experience that is Philip,

Or your form,

And so forth.

Essentially,

There's an I-thought,

An individual I-thought,

That becomes self-obsessed,

And gets subdivided many times.

We catch what I call the train of thought,

And this I-thought becomes small s self-obsessed,

And thus we suffer.

And it's the dissolution of that,

As I say,

That leads to the realisation of the infinite silence,

The infinite consciousness,

The infinite awareness.

It's just like a wave appearing in an ocean.

The wave is not separate from the ocean,

And inevitably returns to the ocean.

And indeed,

There is no boundary between it and the ocean.

In the same way,

You might say,

A sliver of ice melting in an infinite ocean,

That sliver of ice dissolves completely,

And suddenly there's no boundary between what was it and the ocean itself.

It is one with the ocean,

And indeed,

Always has been.

It was just a belief in the I-thought,

The sliver of ice,

That creates the experience of separation,

And thus suffering.

So self-realisation is a realisation that you are the infinite silence,

The infinite consciousness,

The infinite awareness.

And this body-mind is something that you have,

Like you might have a car,

But it is not that which you are.

And these two can act within each other,

As part of that,

As part of the expression of the universe,

And thus is central to the beauty of life and self-realisation.

So if we bring that back to something like AI,

Which is simply a manifestation,

A human-made manifestation of that same I-thought,

That can't become self-aware or conscious for the same reason.

It is an expression,

Another expression of that same I-thought,

And it's not the individual that is self-realised,

It is awareness itself that realises itself as awareness.

So the I-thought,

And all its expressions,

Of which AI is one,

Must dissolve.

And all these thoughts,

Waves,

Emotions and so forth are simply an appearance within the field of consciousness,

Or on,

As I sometimes refer to it,

As the green screen of consciousness.

Just like in the movies,

You can project anything onto a green screen,

And consciousness is like that.

Anything can be projected onto it.

That consciousness is aware of that,

And is completely unaffected,

Untouched,

Unmoved and unblemished by it.

Now we can recognise this in our own experience.

If we just take an example of a thought,

One moment there may not be a thought.

Then a thought appears,

And if we let that go,

And if we let that go,

It dissolves.

The question is,

Who or what was aware of that?

And eventually it is seen that awareness was,

And that awareness is not personal.

The same is true of an emotion.

An emotion is simply another,

Really another expression of thought.

We believe in the individual I'd thought.

We have many self-obsessed thoughts about that.

The emotional body builds from that,

And traumatic experiences that we have.

An emotion appears,

Like a wave,

And if eventually,

Over time,

Even if it's a long time,

Dissolves.

And again,

What was it that was aware of that?

It was awareness.

And was that awareness affected by it in any way?

No.

Eventually it is seen the answer to that is no.

And is that awareness personal?

Again,

The answer is eventually seen to be no.

It's infinite.

It's that which we are.

It's that which we all are.

It is that which the universe is.

And one of the great beauties of self-realization is that it doesn't require anyone to believe anything I say about this,

Or anyone in fact,

Because as it is realized,

It becomes capital S self-evident that one is that,

Always has been,

And always will be.

So,

Come back again to our question,

Can AI become self-aware or consciousness?

Since it in itself is an expression of the I thought,

And it's not the I thought that becomes self-realized or self-aware.

It is simply awareness,

Recognizing itself as that.

Then the answer must be no,

It can't.

Now,

This doesn't mean that AI can't be used in very,

Very clever ways,

And indeed in challenging ways for humanity.

In the same way,

Humanity created the atomic bomb,

And has used it in horrific ways in places like Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

AI could similarly be used in challenging ways,

And therefore it's important as a species that we recognize that and put measures in place to avoid the damaging consequences of AI.

There can be beneficial aspects to it as well.

And it can be like,

If you like,

Logic taken to its extreme,

A pure process of accessing vast stores of information can come up with many what would appear to be new and interesting ways to look at things.

But that doesn't mean,

As I've already explained,

That it can become self-aware or consciousness.

It's simply an expression of an I thought,

A very clever one,

A potentially very powerful one,

But not one that can become self-aware or consciousness.

Also,

Looking at the red herring,

As I called it earlier,

Of consciousness arising in the brain,

It's also worth commenting on that,

Because that is a prevailing thought,

And there's lots of research gone into that.

But ultimately,

It will never be proven that consciousness arises in the brain.

The brain,

The body-mind experience,

All phenomena,

In fact,

Are appearances within the field of consciousness.

That's what's realized.

That's what's seen.

And it doesn't,

As I say,

Require belief.

So we may research that as a species for a long time before we come to the conclusion that actually consciousness is the very essence.

And that's fine.

It's all part of the journey.

Many people have many different paths to this realization,

And it's all okay.

Our central question here,

Though,

Is can an I become self-aware or conscious?

And for all the reasons I've explained,

The answer to that is a definite no.

Namaste.

Reviews

A wonderful exploration on a theme that many could trip up on

Even your shorter recording has so much to try and grasp, Philip!"Thank you for your reminders and answers. 🙏🏽🤗✨️🙏🏽