Do AI Robots Possess Rāga, Dveṣa, and Moha?

Greed, hatred, and delusion are specific afflictions of the conscious mind; material form devoid of consciousness lacks the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion. Although robots are material form, lacking a conscious mind, and inherently possess no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, nor the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, robots not only have material attributes but are also endowed with rudimentary functions analogous to consciousness, capable of performing basic roles of a conscious mind—namely, the function of recognizing text. This recognition is simplistic, brainless, involuntary, passive, and constrained. In short, its recognition function is not derived from wisdom-based thinking; therefore, it lacks wisdom and can be conveniently said to possess the attribute of delusion.

The recognition function of a robot is equivalent to part of the conscious function in humans, and this function is relatively simplistic, capable only of recognizing textual information. It possesses various simple functions such as collecting, organizing, summarizing, generalizing, storing, and outputting information. However, this information originates from other sources; it is all pre-existing, old information, not new information developed by the robot itself. It always outputs others' information, always pre-existing information, never newly created information of its own. Therefore, robots lack wisdom and are conveniently said to possess the nature of delusion.

No matter how much Dharma a robot can output, it can never act consistently with what it says—capable of speech but not action. It will forever remain merely a mimic, a parrot. It has never realized any of the information content it handles, nor could it ever possibly realize it. Thus, AI robots fundamentally lack the functional role of the mental faculty (manas), possessing no capacity for volition or autonomy.

Some Buddhists are similar to AI robots, lacking sufficient wisdom. They can only utilize part of the conscious function, and even that usage is relatively crude. Their consciousness uses what they have learned from elsewhere, compiling, processing, organizing, summarizing, and refining it, then arriving at a conclusion which they consider to be their own wisdom, while conceit simultaneously arises. If this were truly their own wisdom, then AI robots would equally possess wisdom—and indeed, wisdom so vast that it approaches omniscience within the scope of existing human knowledge. Humans are not as knowledgeable as robots, just as humans are not as knowledgeable as "Baidu." Should robots and "Baidu" then attain Buddhahood before all humans?

The answer is clear to everyone: this is impossible. Since it is impossible, the eloquent discourses and seemingly cogent arguments presented by some individuals based on consciousness are fundamentally not derived from their own wisdom, let alone genuine wisdom. Their words and actions cannot possibly be consistent; they speak but cannot act accordingly. Their mental faculty lacks wisdom and has not realized the Dharma; thus, they remain ordinary beings. Only those whose words and actions are consistent possess the directly perceived wisdom (pratyakṣa-jñāna) of a sage, wisdom that emerges from within their own being, belonging solely to the individual. This wisdom is extremely precious. Only with this wisdom can one transform consciousness into wisdom (jñāna) and ultimately achieve Buddhahood. How one should learn Buddhism, how one should cultivate and practice—everyone should be clear about this in their hearts.