If AI Is Sentient Then So Is ‘Age of Empires II
6/24/202642 min
Take control of your data footprint risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Go toincogni.com/404Media and use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's code 404MEDIA atincogni.com/404Media.
Our listeners can buy one pair of glasses and get 20% off any additional pairs at WarbyParker.com/404 — and using our link helps support the show.
We start this week with Matthew’s story about a fascinating paper that argues if LLMs are sentient, then by those metrics so is the classic game Age of Empires II. After the break, Matthew tells us about a wild story out of Texas with a data center being built on land that was donated to be a park. In the subscribers-only section, we talk hacking and basketball.
- If AI Is Sentient Then So Is ‘Age of Empires II’
- A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Massive Data Center Instead
- Hackers Publish Knicks and Madison Square Garden Data Online
- Madison Square Garden Made Dossier on Activists Who Opposed Facial Recognition
YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/LlWJTM18z3E
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMatthew Gault· Panelist0:00
The claim that an LLM could be conscious or not is just inherently ludicrous because it would first require you to understand what consciousness is, and it's like whatever computer scientist at NVIDIA or OpenAI or Anthropic, which would make the claim, it's like, "We've achieved consciousness internally." No, you didn't because you, like, probably don't even understand what that is. Even, like, the greatest minds on this issue don't fully understand what it is.
Joseph Cox· Host0:25
[upbeat music] Hello and welcome to the 404 Media podcast where we bring you unparalleled access to hidden worlds both online and IRL. 404 Media is a journalist-founded company and needs your support. To subscribe, go to 404media.co. As well as bonus content every single week, subscribers also get access to additional episodes where we respond to their best comments. Gain access to that content at 404media.co. Also, remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can watch all of our podcast episodes. Subscribe at youtube.com/@404mediaco. I'm your host Joseph, and with me are 404 Media co-founders Sam Cole- Hello ... Emmanuel Maiberg- Hello ... and our regular contributor Matthew Gault.
Matthew Gault· Panelist1:18
Hello. Hello.
Joseph Cox· Host1:19
All right. So this first story, really, really fun, really, really interesting. The headline, which is probably also just gonna be the title