Hinton Argues Machines Can Have Emotions; Domingos Counters: They Have Reward Functions
pmddomingos · x · 2026-09-30
Geoffrey Hinton argued that machines could in principle have emotions and consciousness: a battle robot facing a stronger opponent would benefit from feeling fear, and the cognitive responses that follow would emerge too. Pedro Domingos retorted that machines don't need emotions because they have reward functions, highlighting the classic divide over whether reward signals count as genuine affect.
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