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Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and a co-founder of several other companies.

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Let's start with an easy question about consciousness.

In your view, is consciousness something that's unique to humans, or is it something that permeates all matter, almost like a fundamental force of physics?

I don't think consciousness permeates all matter.

I don't know about your mind or anything, but the scientific method is like, if you cannot test the hypothesis, then you cannot reach meaningful conclusion that it is true.

Do you think consciousness, understanding consciousness is within the reach of science, of the scientific method?

We can dramatically improve our understanding of consciousness.

You know, I'd be hard pressed to say that we understand anything with complete accuracy, but can we dramatically improve our understanding of consciousness?

Does an AI system, in your view, have to have consciousness in order to achieve human level or superhuman level intelligence?

Does it need to have some of these human qualities like consciousness, maybe a body, maybe a fear of mortality, capacity to love, those kinds of silly human things?

But there's a separate, you know, there's this scientific method which I very much believe in where something is true to the degree that it is testably so.

And otherwise you're really just talking about, you know, preferences or untestable beliefs or that kind of thing.

So it ends up being somewhat of a semantic question where we were conflating a lot of things with the word intelligence.

If we parse them out and say, are we headed towards a future where an AI will be able to outthink us in every way, then the answer is unequivocally yes.

In order for an AI system that needs to outthink us in every way, it also needs to have a capacity to have consciousness, self-awareness, and understanding.

I mean, to me, in terms of what consciousness feels like, it feels like consciousness is in a different dimension.

You know, if you damage your brain in some way physically you get you you damage your consciousness Which implies that consciousness is a physical phenomenon?

In my view The thing is that that I think are really quite likely is that digital intelligence will be able to outthink us in every way, and it will still be able to simulate what we consider consciousness.

So to a degree that you would not be able to tell the difference.

And from the from the aspect of the scientific method, it might as well be consciousness if we can simulate it perfectly.

If you can't tell the difference, when this is sort of the Turing test, but think of a more sort of advanced version of the Turing test.

If you're talking to a digital super intelligence and can't tell if that is a computer or a human, like let's say you're just having a conversation over a phone or a video conference or something where you're, you're, you think you're talking, looks like a person makes all of the right, inflections and movements and, and all the small subtleties that constitute a human, and, talks like human makes mistakes like a human like at that and you literally just can't tell is this are you video conferencing with a person or an AI?


Speaker 0: Let's start with an easy question about consciousness. In your view, is consciousness something that's unique to humans, or is it something that permeates all matter, almost like a fundamental force of physics?

Speaker 1: I don't think consciousness permeates all matter.

Speaker 0: Panpsychists believe that. Yeah. There's a philosophical...

Speaker 1: How would you tell?

Speaker 0: That's true, that's a good point.

Speaker 1: I believe in scientific methods. I don't know about your mind or anything, but the scientific method is like, if you cannot test the hypothesis, then you cannot reach meaningful conclusion that it is true.

Speaker 0: Do you think consciousness, understanding consciousness is within the reach of science, of the scientific method?

Speaker 1: We can dramatically improve our understanding of consciousness. You know, I'd be hard pressed to say that we understand anything with complete accuracy, but can we dramatically improve our understanding of consciousness? I believe the answer is yes.

Speaker 0: Does an AI system, in your view, have to have consciousness in order to achieve human level or superhuman level intelligence? Does it need to have some of these human qualities like consciousness, maybe a body, maybe a fear of mortality, capacity to love, those kinds of silly human things?

Speaker 1: But there's a separate, you know, there's this scientific method which I very much believe in where something is true to the degree that it is testably so. And otherwise you're really just talking about, you know, preferences or untestable beliefs or that kind of thing. So it ends up being somewhat of a semantic question where we were conflating a lot of things with the word intelligence. If we parse them out and say, are we headed towards a future where an AI will be able to outthink us in every way, then the answer is unequivocally yes.

Speaker 0: In order for an AI system that needs to outthink us in every way, it also needs to have a capacity to have consciousness, self-awareness, and understanding.

Speaker 1: It will be self-aware, yes. That's different from consciousness. I mean, to me, in terms of what consciousness feels like, it feels like consciousness is in a different dimension. But this could be just an illusion. You know, if you damage your brain in some way physically you get you you damage your consciousness Which implies that consciousness is a physical phenomenon?

In my view The thing is that that I think are really quite likely is that digital intelligence will be able to outthink us in every way, and it will still be able to simulate what we consider consciousness. So to a degree that you would not be able to tell the difference.

Speaker 0: And from the from the aspect of the scientific method, it might as well be consciousness if we can simulate it perfectly.

Speaker 1: If you can't tell the difference, when this is sort of the Turing test, but think of a more sort of advanced version of the Turing test. If you're talking to a digital super intelligence and can't tell if that is a computer or a human, like let's say you're just having a conversation over a phone or a video conference or something where you're, you're, you think you're talking, looks like a person makes all of the right, inflections and movements and, and all the small subtleties that constitute a human, and, talks like human makes mistakes like a human like at that and you literally just can't tell is this are you video conferencing with a person or an AI?

Speaker 0: Might as well. Might as well. Be human. You

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Elon Musk: Consciousness