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Photo: No known restrictions on publication.   http://JohnBatchelorShow.com/contact http://JohnBatchelorShow.com/schedules Parler & Twitter: @BatchelorShow The Shape of Things to Come: 1of2: AI Expansion Game. @drjimdavies, Institute of Cognitive Science, Carleton University. @Nature http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/1.20821!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/538291a.pdf A.I. is Not Consciousness. @drjimdavies, Institute of Cognitive Science, Carleton University. @Nature 2016. “…But, when we worry about AI, machine consciousness is not as important as people think. In fact, careful reading of the warnings from Gates, Hawking and others show that they never actually mention consciousness. Furthermore, the fear of self-awareness distorts public debate. AI becomes defined as dangerous or not purely on the basis of whether it is conscious or not. We must realize that stopping an AI from developing consciousness is not the same as stopping it from developing the capacity to cause harm. Where did this concern of machine consciousness come from? It seems mainly a worry of laypeople and journalists. Search for news articles about AI threats, and it’s almost always the journalist who mentions consciousness. Although we do lots of things unconsciously, such as perceiving visual scenes and constructing the sentences we say, people seem to associate complicated plans with deliberate, conscious thought. It seems inconceivable to do something as complex as taking over the world without consciously thinking about it. So it could be that people have a hard time imagining that AI could pose an existential threat unless it also had conscious thought….”