Lenore Blum: AI Consciousness is Inevitable: The Conscious Turing Machine

*Lenore refers to a few slides in this podcast; you can see them here. 

Intro

Today's guest, distinguished mathematician and computer scientist Lenore Blum, explains why she and her husband Manuel believe machine consciousness isn't just possible, it's inevitable. Their reasoning? If consciousness is computational (and they're betting it is), and we can mathematically specify those computations, then we can build them. It's that simple, and that profound.

In this conversation, host Will Millership and Callum Chace discuss with Lenore:

• How the Conscious Turing Machine (CTM) draws from and extends the foundational ideas of Alan Turing's Universal Turing Machine.
• Using mathematics to "extract and simplify" the complexities of consciousness, searching for the fundamental, formal principles that define it.
• How the CTM acts as a high-level framework that aligns with the functionalities of competing theories like Global Workspace Theory and Integrated Information Theory (IIT).
• Why the Blums believe that AI consciousness is "inevitable" and that this provides a functional "roadmap for a conscious AI".
• The ethical implications of machine suffering, and why the phenomenon of "pain asymbolia" suggests a conscious AI must be able* *to suffer in order to function.
• What lessons Alan Turing's original "imitation game" can offer us for creating a practical, real-world test for machine consciousness.

Lenore's Work (links)

• Blum, L., & Blum,M. (2024). AI Consciousness is Inevitable: A Theoretical Computer Science Perspective. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.17101
• Blum, L., & Blum, M. (2022). A theory of consciousness from a theoretical computer science perspective: Insights from the Conscious Turing Machine. PNAS, 119(21). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.21159341
• Closer to Truth, Blums’ Conscious Turing Machine
• Full list of references here.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Welcome
• 2:07 Mathematical Foundations and Early Career
• 5:42 Journey to Consciousness Research
• 11:15 Defining Consciousness and Awareness
• 17:30 The Conscious Turing Machine (CTM) Model
• 26:00 Global Workspace Theory and Broadcasting
• 35:30 Model of the World and Prediction
• 45:00 Sleep, Dreams, and Consciousness
• 55:01 Feelings, Emotions, and Machine Consciousness
• 1:05:02 Embodiment and Physical Grounding
• 1:15:00 Why AI Consciousness is "Inevitable"
• 1:25:00 Current AI Systems and Consciousness
• 1:30:00 Pain, Suffering, and Machine Ethics
• 1:36:09 Testing for Consciousness and Future Directions