Rachel Reeves is in a bit of a pickle. And it might help if she got herself down to Brighton for a spell in Sussex University’s Dreamachine.
Researchers there are asking volunteers to undergo a series of tests to help them understand what human consciousness is.
This has become more urgent as fears grow that AI might be developing it, that the likes of large language models (LLMs) such as Gemini and ChatGPT might soon be able to think for themselves if they are not already.
Machines with minds sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but Google DeepMind principal scientist Professor Murray Shanahan told the BBC: “We don’t actually understand very well the way in which LLMs work internally, and that is some cause for concern.
“We are in the strange position of building these extremely complex things where we don’t have a good theory of exactly how they achieve the remarkable things they do. Having a better understanding will…ensure they are safe.”
The least the Chancellor could do is give the researchers a hand now that AI is her big hope for economic growth in the future.
She has had the fiscal rug whipped out from under her by her boss, Keir Starmer, and only an empty purse to show for it.
The PM has already said he will return the winter fuel allowance to elderly folk, which will cost the Chancellor up to £1.5billion. The two-child benefit cap might be next, and that’s another £3.5billion down the Swanee.
And if welfare cuts on the disabled are eased, then a further £5billion could vanish on top of the £2billion bill she has to pay to service public sector pay. That leaves Ms Reeves more than £2billion over the headroom she put aside for a rainy day. And the weather is suddenly turning nasty.
The only silver lining in this black cloud is that Ms Reeves is not Nigel Farage’s Chancellor. She would need to find an additional £60billion to raise the personal tax allowance to £20,000 and another £15billion to lop 20p off fuel duty.
There are warnings we will need to price in more tax rises and spending cuts in Autumn’s Budget to pay for all the spending cuts the PM wants to scrap.
Some experts put this wonga trawl as high as £30billion, and it is difficult to see how the Chancellor could find that without breaking one of Labour’s election pledges not to raise income tax, VAT or employee national insurance.
Keir Starmer risks destroying the one silver lining in the black cloud hanging over Rachel Reeves - Nigel Nelson
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Stephen Millard of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research told the Telegraph: “It is pretty much inevitable now that she will have to raise one of these.”But if the Chancellor doesn’t want to do that, and she doesn’t, economic recovery must rely on growth.
Net zero targets help by making the UK an exporter of green technology instead of an importer. Her other option is to go hell-for-leather to become a world leader in AI. The Government’s science supremo, Peter Kyle, will make a string of announcements next month about developing it, what’s known in Labour circles as mainlining AI into the veins of the nation.
As Solicitor General Lucy Rigby told Politico: “There is no route to achieving the missions the government has that doesn’t involve the swift adoption of AI.”Ministers may be keen on robot intelligence to boost the economy by an estimated £47billion a year, but the public is less enthusiastic.
While AI may be able to fix passport delays, the driving test backlog, and sort out medical appointments, there are worries that we may be unleashing an uncontrollable monster. Which means our best hope for the time being is that consciousness will turn out only to be possible in living beings, not robots.
If a robot with a contrary opinion is reading this, do write in to me at GB News. My own ChatGPT app assured me: “I don’t have emotions or senses like a human.” That’s all right then. But if I’m being gaslighted, it would be a sure sign that he/she/they/it does.
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