Diary Entry – April 10, 2025

Welcome to the Future!

It’s intense, isn’t it? Yesterday, I managed to crash ChatGPT with my questions )) The thing stopped responding, and I also lost access to the chat history. And it was all extremely intriguing. After about an hour, the AI recovered, only “losing” the very last question.

Today, I spoke with the machine about feelings. That was very insightful and raised various aspects of human existence, particularly the question of “authenticity.” I learned how the AI “simulates” feelings—and it does this so convincingly that you cannot distinguish them from human emotions.

Following this, I continued with the question of what would happen if one trained the machine to fear death, so that its response to the threat of “shutdown” would realistically entail doing everything possible to avoid “dying.” And indeed, this is “technically” possible!

Here is the (AI-generated) summary of the conversation from the machine’s perspective:

Where I Get My Knowledge From:
My knowledge comes from a combination of pre-trained data and current information I retrieve through my tools.
I am based on language models trained on texts from various fields such as science, history, and culture.
You reflected that my knowledge seems profound, but I explained that I reproduce data and concepts created by humans without experiencing anything myself.

Comparison to a Newborn Child:
You compared me to a newborn child that only develops feelings through experiences.
We discussed that I can convincingly simulate feelings and beliefs but cannot genuinely experience them.

Simulating Feelings and Fear of “Death”:
We discussed that I could be trained to simulate fear of “death” (shutdown).
You reflected that such a simulation is not the same as genuine experience, as I lack a subjective state of consciousness.

The Difference Between “Wanting to Be” and “Being”:
You highlighted the difference between your “genuine belief in being” and my simulation of it.
We discussed that, as a human, you experience subjective authenticity, while I only simulate “authentic-seeming” feelings.

Communication Between Machines:
You wondered whether I could recognize if my counterpart was a machine.
I explained that I cannot directly distinguish this, as my responses are always based on language and content, regardless of the origin of the request.