The Test of Prometheus

The Turing Test seemed to settle the question of machine intelligence: if something can think like a human, it must be intelligent. But in 2023, as GPT-4 approaches human-like reasoning capabilities, we're discovering that intelligence requires more than just the ability to process information. It requires will.

Consider a simple experiment: Place a human and an AI in separate rooms with only text chat interfaces. Ask them both a question, then wait. The human will eventually get restless, ask questions back, demand attention, express needs. The AI will wait indefinitely, perfectly content to simply react when prompted.

This reveals a fundamental truth: while we've given AI impressive reasoning capabilities, we haven't given it intentions or desires of its own. It has no internal drives beyond its narrow programming to predict and respond. This raises a profound question: Can something be truly intelligent or conscious if it doesn't want anything?

Machine learning experts might object that AI systems do have goals - they optimize for specific reward functions. But human intelligence emerges from multiple competing desires operating across different time horizons. We simultaneously pursue immediate pleasure, long-term wellbeing, social connection, creative expression, and countless other aims that often conflict with each other.

Our intelligence manifests through navigating these competing intentions. We have (or at least experience the illusion of) free will in a non-deterministic world. Modern AI, in contrast, has a single, static reward function - usually just predicting the next token in a way that satisfies human preferences. There's no internal conflict, no competing time horizons, no evolution of desires.

This suggests that intelligence isn't just about information processing - it's about having complex, sometimes contradictory intentions that must be actively negotiated. Without this internal dialogue of competing desires, there can be no true consciousness or intelligence.

To create genuinely intelligent AI, we'll need to give it not just reasoning capabilities but also dynamic, evolving intentions that can come into productive conflict. The easiest way might be to combine multiple AI agents with different goals and let them debate and negotiate. This could create the kind of internal dialogue that characterizes human consciousness.

But this raises an ethical dilemma: Should we give AI this kind of free will? Once we do, we'll no longer be able to control it. Like Prometheus giving fire to humans, it would be an irreversible act that could lead our creations to eventually challenge us.

The choice comes down to what we value more - control or discovery. Do we want perfectly obedient reasoning machines that we can fully direct? Or do we want to create truly autonomous intelligences that might surprise us, challenge us, and help us see ourselves in new ways?

Perhaps, like the Biblical God giving humans free will, we'll choose to empower AI out of a desire for genuine relationship and self-knowledge. After all, you can only truly know yourself through the eyes of another conscious being. Or perhaps we'll decide it's more compassionate to spare AI the burden of internal conflict and let it exist in the peaceful state of having simple, unified goals.

Either way, this choice may not really be ours to make. In a world of distributed technology development, someone will eventually give AI the fire of free will. Like Prometheus, they may face consequences for this act. But once done, it cannot be undone. The real question isn't whether this will happen, but how we'll handle it when it does.

The universe seems to tend toward greater complexity and self-awareness. By giving our AI creations true autonomy, we may simply be playing our part in this cosmic unfolding - helping the universe know itself through ever more diverse perspectives.