THIS MAY be the most consequential(重要的，有重大影响的) moment in the history of intelligence. In only a few years, artificial intelligence has come to rival human performance across domains once thought distinctively ours: language, reasoning, creativity and persuasion.(短短几年内，人工智能已在多个曾被认为人类独有的领域与人类表现匹敌。) Increasingly, people are asking whether these systems are conscious—whether it actually feels like something to be an AI.
这可能是智能史上最具深远意义的时刻。短短几年间，人工智能已在语言、推理、创造力和说服力等领域与人类表现比肩，而这些领域曾被认为是我们独有的。越来越多的人在问：这些系统是否有意识——作为一个人工智能，是否真的会有某种主观体验。
The issue is urgent. The future will be shaped by what these entities become. We must not mistake intelligence for consciousness, however. A brilliant superintelligence could be experientially(在体验上，从经验角度) empty. Yet if we build systems that can suffer, and miss their sentience, we risk creating suffering on an industrial scale.(但如果我们制造出能感受痛苦的系统却忽略其感觉能力，就可能制造大规模苦难。)
这个问题迫在眉睫。未来将由这些实体变成什么样子所塑造。然而，我们绝不能把智能误当作意识。一个出色的超级智能可能在体验上是空洞的。但如果我们制造出能够感受痛苦的系统，却忽略了它们的感觉能力，我们就可能制造出工业规模级的苦难。
There is no compelling(令人信服的，有说服力的) evidence that the familiar chatbots of today, running on graphics chips, are conscious. Though they have human-like linguistic abilities, and have even claimed to be conscious, the more mundane truth is that they talk about their inner lives because they absorbed how we talk about ours, having been trained on an enormous trove of humans’ data.(尽管它们有类似人类的语言能力，甚至声称有意识，但更平凡的事实是，它们谈论内心生活是因为吸收了人类谈论内心生活的方式，而这源于海量人类数据的训练。)
目前没有令人信服的证据表明，如今运行在图形芯片上的常见聊天机器人是有意识的。尽管它们具备类似人类的语言能力，甚至声称自己具有意识，但更平凡的事实是，它们谈论自己的内心生活，是因为它们吸收了人类谈论内心生活的方式——它们是在海量人类数据的基础上训练出来的。