>>325702I have mixed thoughts about whether the current methods will ever produce true intelligence/sentience. Some of the things they are doing with attention and whatnot mimic the natural processes that the human brain goes through to produce thought, so it's not inconcievable, but I think it may be that they're barking up the wrong tree and may never achieve it through these methods. Intelligence and sentience exist in the first place because of the process of natural selection. I think that in order to produce true intelligence they will need to simulate the process of natural selection and create pressures that produce intelligence naturally. Essentially I think they will have to create little simulated versions of the world and grow alien species from the beginnings instilling basic instincts first, then having them evolve and compete over time and eventually intelligence would be produced. Then you can take your little simulated aliens and give them senses in the real world. As long as you make your simulations close enough to the real world in the first place, they will then be able to act intelligently in the real world.
In a scenario like that there is no telling what could go wrong. You could introduce humans and english language to them with your role being that of a God since you can control everything in their simulated world. Then we would basically have created little aliens that worship us as Gods but then if we let them out they would quickly realize we're not Gods. Possibly even before that if we just explain things to them and start giving them sensory data slowly.
Problem is if we're designing them to be more intelligent and capable than us that could go really badly in the obvious sci-fi kind of ways.