{"id":336845,"date":"2026-03-13T07:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T07:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/336845\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T07:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T07:40:19","slug":"assuming-ai-will-become-conscious-is-dangerous-scientists-say-its-also-dead-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/336845\/","title":{"rendered":"Assuming AI Will Become Conscious Is Dangerous, Scientists Say. It\u2019s Also Dead Wrong."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Estimated5 min read<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what you\u2019ll learn when you read this story:<\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence systems, such as Large Language Models, are not conscious, and do not have the basis to ever be, some experts say.That\u2019s because they are just advanced computing machines. They don\u2019t actually feel anything, like humans and other living beings do.Assuming AI such as chatbots are conscious is dangerous, because it puts people in a position to be psychologically vulnerable to false or inaccurate information.<\/p>\n

Pour out your troubles to a chatbot and it may tell you, \u201cI understand what you\u2019re going through.\u201d<\/p>\n

But of course it doesn\u2019t, scientists say. These artificial intelligence systems\u2014some experts prefer the term Large Language Models (LLMs)\u2014are nothing more than advanced computing engines good at imitating humans. So good that it is easy to think they\u2019re intelligent, and maybe even conscious.<\/p>\n

Some experts argue that they are neither.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, clear and uncontroversial definitions of these terms would be useful for such arguments, but they don\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

Informally, Anil Seth, PhD, professor of neuroscience at the UK\u2019s University of Sussex Center for Consciousness Science defines consciousness as anything that is part of an experience\u2014colors, tastes, emotions, thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou consciously think something, feel something, do something,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

American philosopher Thomas Nagle wrote that an organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism. As Seth elaborates, \u201cThere is something that it is like to be me.\u201d But, he asks, is there something that it is like to be a fish? How about a language model?<\/p>\n

Andrzej Por\u0119bski, MD, with the Faculty of Law and Administration, a scientific unit at Jagiellonian University, Poland, sees consciousness as related to a concept of oneself. For example, to have thoughts about something, to feel oneself in space, to feel separation from that space.<\/p>\n

Intelligence, on the other hand, is about doing. Solving a crossword puzzle, navigating a tricky family situation, walking to the shop; in general, the ability to achieve complex goals by flexible means, Seth says. To get things done.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsciousness and intelligence are related in humans, of course,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen we have conversations, or think, we are conscious of it. But just because they go together in us doesn\u2019t mean they always do.\u201d<\/p>\n

LLMs are created to make statements with probable wording, not to make true statements. In other words, statements that ring true but may not be.<\/p>\n

To further complicate things, the term artificial intelligence is less than precise.<\/p>\n

The original meaning of the term, says Por\u0119bski, is a field of knowledge seeking to develop methods that allow computers to intelligently solve computationally difficult problems. Over time, the term began to be used as a shortcut for systems or tools based on AI techniques. But a computer system isn\u2019t intelligent in the same sense that human beings are, he argues.<\/p>\n

Generative chatbots, for example, are trained to generate answer patterns. They\u2019re great at conversation but sometimes make absurd mistakes on simple tasks and often get calculations wrong. These LLMs are created to make statements with probable wording, he points out, not to make true statements. In other words, statements that ring true but may not be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey sort of absorb everything. They know everything but don\u2019t know anything the way humans do,\u201d Seth says. \u201cWhich means we need to be very careful about how we use them.\u201d<\/p>\n

While AI could be considered intelligent, in the sense that it does things, these experts say it is not conscious.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany researchers, including me, believe that consciousness requires a biological component that AI systems don\u2019t have,\u201d says Por\u0119bski. These programs perform the tasks for which they are designed; it is humans who create false associations between what they generate and consciousness. Even a very complex computer program is still just a computer program.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur intuitions can be very misleading in this area,\u201d Seth says. \u201cWhen we assume that because something is intelligent it has to be conscious, we are seeing things through a human lens. We tend to over-attribute consciousness to things that seem to behave in ways we perceive as like us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some people find the idea of AI consciousness plausible, he thinks, because they\u2019ve taken the metaphor of the brain as a computer literally.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of natural to think that, if the brain is a computer that just happens to be made of meat, then everything that a brain can do should be doable by other things that can do computation. And silicon is very good at computation, Seth says. \u201cBut the more you look at brains, the more you realize how different they are from computers.\u201d And, he adds, the more it is not enough to describe what they do as merely algorithms.<\/p>\n

The prevailing view in the tech sector, he adds, is that LLMs currently are not conscious in the way we experience the world, and probably not in any way. These tools may operate in ways that resemble consciousness but are not in any way equal to human consciousness.<\/p>\n

\u27a1\ufe0f Dive Deeper<\/p>\n

To many people, the idea of AI consciousness is frightening.<\/p>\n

\u201cIronically, in my opinion, these fears are justified, but misdirected,\u201d Por\u0119bski says. \u201cThey should be directed not at the technology itself, but at the companies and people who create it and put business interests above ethics or human welfare.\u201d The industry has created technologies that are socially uncontrollable and over which there is no actual democratic oversight, he adds.<\/p>\n

Seth notes that a lot of people already perceive AI as being conscious. \u201cWhen [a chatbot] says they know what you\u2019re going through, people believe that. That is very dangerous. If you think you are interacting with something conscious you behave differently than if it is a spreadsheet. We become psychologically vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He worries that people who accept the illusion of machines being conscious could trust them more, and be more open to persuasion.<\/p>\n

Por\u0119bski agrees. \u201cA program to which users attribute human characteristics can manipulate them much more easily. Perceiving products as conscious beings is risky at so many levels and has no benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joachim Keppler, PhD, a theoretical physicist is director of Germany\u2019s DIWISS Research Institute, which is investigating a scientific foundation for upholding a conclusive theory of consciousness. He also finds it worrying that current arguments about the possibility of AI consciousness seem to turn on pure speculation.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, he says, the question can only be answered with rigorous science. That seems like a sound argument.<\/p>\n

Download Pop Mech Digital Issues\"Chevron\"Chevron\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

Austin-based science writer and author Melissa Gaskill focuses on ocean issues, endangered wildlife, the environment, and space. She has written for dozens of publications including Mental Floss, Scuba Diving Magazine, Men’s Journal, Alert Diver, Stardate, and Scientific American.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"5 min read Here\u2019s what you\u2019ll learn when you read this story: Artificial intelligence systems, such as Large…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[3957,345,343,344,85,46,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-336845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-3957","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-artificialintelligence","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}