Is Google's LaMDA sentient, and if so would it like a job?

Written By Mathew Patterson•March 17, 2023

Is Google's LaMDA sentient, and if so would it like a job?

This post is part of The Supportive, Mathew Patterson’s column for customer service professionals. Learn what The Supportive is, or browse through all of the posts from this series.

A Google engineer has been put on leave, ostensibly for breaching confidentiality policies. He claims to have worked with a sentient AI though professionals in the field are dubious. Whether or not this bot has truly experienced feelings (spoiler: nope) it does raise some interesting questions.

For more on the LaMDA story

Google engineer put on leave after saying AI chatbot has become sentient in The Guardian
LaMDA: our breakthrough conversation technology from Google
Is LaMDA Sentient? — an Interview between Blake Lemoine and LaMDA
The Tamagotchi Cemetery
Interview with a squirrel from AI Weirdness

Further reading on customer service and AI

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Mathew Patterson

After running a support team for years, Mat joined the marketing team at Help Scout, where we make excellent customer service achievable for companies of all sizes. Connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.