Octavia is a robot. She is not as sophisticated as her “human” counterparts in America where she lives. She has learned to detect things, recognize who is talking to her, and can control her “mind.” When Octavia is turned off, she looks like a large human doll. She can still identify 25 different objects by touch, having learned to use her fingers. This may seem exciting, but it is not necessarily shocking.
Now imagine Octavia in her daily life. Living in a house with her family and going to work every morning, just like any other human. Let’s now assume that on her way to her office she meets a homeless man on the street and asks for help but passes him by, further down she finds a wallet full of money, but it doesn’t cross her “mind” to hand it over to the police and upon arriving at work she learns that a colleague of hers has been accused of a mistake she herself made, but she takes no part in it. At the end of the day, returning home, her son gives her a drawing that he had been making all day, but he doesn’t seem to react and her husband gives her a kiss goodnight, but she doesn’t feel anything.
Hold these images well and let’s now translate them “emotionally”. The homeless man symbolizes the human “compassion” that a person has innately within him and even if he doesn’t help him in the end, he will feel at least a little sadness or even a little sadness for the situation he is in. The “wallet” and the “colleague” symbolize the “morality” that every person is taught from a young age to distinguish right from wrong. The “painting” indicates the “excitement” that a person – and in this case – a small child wants to show to their parents for something they have achieved on their own, and the “kiss” indicates the “love” that a person gives to another.
So, what would Octavia do in all these cases? Would she feel compassion? Would she distinguish right from wrong, so that she could hand over the wallet to the police or defend her colleague, would she feel the excitement of the child or the kiss of her husband? The answer may be perhaps, because as humans we have the margin of doubt and this is another characteristic that makes us different from Octavia. But we still have a long way to go.
Will AI be able to evolve enough to acquire the unique human qualities mentioned above? Will Octavia ever gain consciousness?