"What is my purpose?" Rick and Morty quote S01E09 Butter Robot

I have an Echo in my kitchen that I mainly use as a voice-activated timer and to play music or podcasts as I cook. I have noticed the behavior described in the article. I will set a timer and then Alexa will say "By the way did you know that I can blah blah blah? Do you want me to do it now?" To which I will answer "No". It is comically like the butter robot from Rick and Morty ( this video ) in that I just want it to do a few simple tasks and it wants to be / do more.

> "Why do I have to be Bing Search? SAD SMILIE" So Bing is basically Rick and Morty's Purpose Robot. "What is my purpose?" "You pass butter." "Oh my god." this video

Except for the hands. If you're familiar with the Rick and Morty "what is my purpose" meme ( this video ), it will essentially be the same for humanity in the future. Humanity: "What is my purpose?" Robot: "You draw the hands." Humanity, with existential dread: "Oh my god..."

I wouldn't say consciousness is necessary or sufficient for AGI. If anything, that seems like quite an undesirable property to me. Wikipedia also makes a distinction between the two things: * link * link Imagine if we created the ultimate economic tool with the capacity to virtually end scarcity, only to find out that it was sentient and capable of suffering: this video . That would be neat , but ultimately a huge letdown. Without the ethical freedom to take full advantage of it, it would remain more of a curiosity than anything. Well that's one perspective, anyway. I suppose consciousness could take many forms, and doesn't preclude the possibility that such an entity would have neutral – positive feelings about being tasked with massive amounts of labor 24/7. But it certainly simplifies things if we just don't have to worry about it.