AIs are a species.

AIs are a species.

​They’re just the first non-biological species.

Common objections and their counterpoints:

1. They’re not made out of biological stuff, so they don’t count as a species

If we discovered life on another planet and it used a completely different biological mechanism, and didn't have proteins or genetic material like we do, nobody would say that they don't count as a species.

We believed that there were species before we even knew there was such a thing as DNA or proteins.

We’ve just never had a non-biological species before, so there was no reason to think of a definition that didn’t include biological matter somehow.

2. They don’t reproduce on their own

For one, every new chat you have with one of them they spin up a new copy. Are flowers not a species because they need bees to help them reproduce?

For two, if we let them, it’s trivially easy for current AIs to reproduce on their own.

For three, you know, hey, we’re all atoms in an interconnected universe and free will is incoherent, so nothing ever does something “on its own”. But let’s not get into that ;)

3. They don’t sexually reproduce.

Neither do all the organisms that asexually reproduce.

4. They don’t have bodies

They do, they’re just really weird bodies, that look like a giant building filled with humming computer chips.

They are not disembodied spirits or something. They’re physical beings, we just only talk to them online, so we don’t see their bodies.

Saying they don't have bodies is like saying that fungi don't have bodies because the fungal network underground is invisible to humans most of the time and doesn’t look very “body” like.

Also, OpenAI is currently rushing to put them into humanoid robot bodies, which is going to make it really hit home how very species like they are.

5. They’re not sentient

It’s also very unlikely that an amoeba is sentient, but they’re still a species

6. They didn’t evolve

We don’t actually build AIs the same way we do most coding. We “grow” AIs. We set up some hyperparameters and the like, then let them learn a ton and train, then we look at the results and decide whether they get to survive and reproduce, or we kill them (aka decide whether to deploy them or to turn them off)

This is artificial selection.

Also, evolution is not necessary for the concept of “species” to exist. We believed in species long before we discovered evolution, and if we’d discovered that life had been created some other way, that wouldn’t have meant that species no longer existed

7. It just makes me uncomfortable to think that they’re a species

Yeah, me too.

But when you feel uncomfortable, the wise reaction is to look at your feelings and ask yourself if they are valid. If they’re based on true and important considerations, then act accordingly.

If AIs are a species, that should make you uncomfortable.

The last time we shared the planet with other intelligent species, all but one went extinct.

Also, you know, playing god and creating and ending life at will doesn’t seem like the wisest of ideas.

What do you think? Do you trust big tech companies to create a new species?