Google Dismisses Engineer Who Previously Saw Intelligence in AI

Google said it has sacked a senior software engineer who claimed that the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot LaMDA is a self-conscious individual.

Earlier, Google executives had placed engineer Blake Lemoine, who had been working with the LaMDA artificial intelligence system, on paid leave and claimed that it was beginning to show signs of consciousness.

a Google spokesperson said in an email to Reuters:

It's regrettable that despite lengthy engagement on this topic, Blake still chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information.

LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) is Google's neural network for creating chatbots. It is based on big language models – trillions of words from the internet – and can be used to communicate about any topic.