A Google engineer who thinks the company’s AI has come to life
The argument that deep network algorithms are just matrix operations is not compelling to me as a reason we aren’t getting there…<p>I believe two things:<p>-1. the universe itself operates on mostly simple rules which can be simulated to high enough precision on hardware to approach what happens in the real world. If we can simulate nuclear reactions, we can simulate consciousness, and that will result in real consciousness.  The simulated entity will believe all the same things as a real one.  And there are likely huge shortcuts we can use to optimize so we aren’t simulating a whole brain or person. Maybe matrix math is all you need.<p>- 2. I don’t know how to build consciousness, but I believe wherever it exists in the universe, some kind of interconnected network like we find in the brain or neutral networks will exist at its foundation.<p>Given this, I don’t think it’s crazy to say we are making in roads to sentience.