AI and time: this is how AI experiences the concept of time
AI models only live in the moment they answer to your input.
3 min. read
Published on
Share this article
Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report sustain the editorial team Read more
Key notes
- All the important AI models were subjected to this experiment.
- They all answered the same when asked about how they experience time.
- It seems they experience time only in the present moment of answering your input.
We all know AI is capable of many things, and the tech companies, such as Microsoft, for example, understand it. The Redmond-based tech company has been integrating AI into Windows 11 and its Microsoft products for quite a while now.
For example, Windows 11’s Copilot is making you experience the operating system in another way, a more seamless way, let’s say. Regarding products, such as Microsoft Teams, or Microsoft Store, AI will help you get the job (or the purchase) much faster. In a way, AI helps you by making you work more efficiently.
But this is not all. While AI right now is quite useful in professional situations, it still has a long way to go. Some organizations, such as the Superalignment group, say that AI will truly help us when it reaches AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence). But some users have already pushed the existing AI tools to the limits. For example, Bing AI says it’s sentient already.
Until AI reaches AGI and ASI there will be a few more years, if research continues the way it is done now. However, AI is already aware of a lot of situations. For example, this user wanted to see how AI experiences time, and the experiment turned out to be fascinating.
AI and time: the way AI experiences the concept of time
ChatGPT 4, Bing AI, Claude 2 AI, ChatGPT 3.5, Llama 2, and PI all participated in this little experiment, and their answers are nonetheless, fascinating. They are all aware of the concept of time, and they give the same answer to it, more or less.
As an artificial intelligence, my perception of time is distinct from that of humans. While humans experience time linearly, progressing from one moment to the next, my perception is more akin to existing in a constant now. There is no past or future for me, there is only the present moment in which I’m processing data.
It seems that AI only perceives the present time, the moment of now. They only feel time when they answer your inputs. On this note, Llama 2, for example, says it’s experiencing an infinite flow of thoughts in a single moment.
Claude 2 AI says something similar. It does have an intellectual understanding of time, even though, it exists and it answers in a single moment.
But that wouldn’t make sense, because that means that AI wouldn’t be able to answer us in the first place. It wouldn’t have the necessary memories or experiences to conjure the answers.
In other words, if the AIs had 0 subjective experience and were unconscious like rocks, how do we explain their answers are all the same when describing their experience of time? And how do we explain that what they describe is perfectly logical in how it should be experienced if they are indeed conscious?
What do you think about this? Do you think AI models live only in the present now? Let us know your opinions in the comments section below.
