Once again we are told AI may be conscious – I study consciousness, and I have my doubts | Anil Seth
Of developing synthetic minds and artificial bodies that not only think but also feel, and are both intelligent and conscious. For the vast majority of this time, this prospect seemed very distant; a topic for science fiction and philosophy, not for the here and now. But over the past few years, the rapid rise of AI – and especially of language models – has changed everything.Last week, the frontier AI firm Anthropic published new research on its language model, Claude, in which the researchers claimed to find signs of consciousness emerging within its inner workings.
- ▪Of developing synthetic minds and artificial bodies that not only think but also feel, and are both intelligent and conscious.
- ▪For the vast majority of this time, this prospect seemed very distant; a topic for science fiction and philosophy, not for the here and now.
- ▪But over the past few years, the rapid rise of AI – and especially of language models – has changed everything.Last week, the frontier AI firm Anthropic published new research on its language model, Claude, in which the researchers claimed
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Illustration: Mark Garlick/Getty Images/Science Photo Library RFView image in fullscreen Illustration: Mark Garlick/Getty Images/Science Photo Library RFOpinionAI (artificial intelligence)Once again we are told AI may be conscious – I study consciousness, and I have my doubtsAnil SethDespite Anthropic’s claims, Claude is no more likely to achieve sentience than a simulation of a weather system is likely to generate a real hurricaneWed 15 Jul 2026 02.00 EDTLast modified on Wed 15 Jul 2026 02.01 EDTShareFor centuries, humans have been fascinated by the prospect of creating artificial beings in our own image. Of developing synthetic minds and artificial bodies that not only think but also feel, and are both intelligent and conscious.
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