{"id":705697,"date":"2026-07-22T18:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T18:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705697\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T18:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T18:34:08","slug":"we-must-reject-any-notion-of-ai-consciousness-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705697\/","title":{"rendered":"We must reject any notion of AI consciousness | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Anil Seth is right to point out that to overestimate artificial intelligence is to underestimate ourselves (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2026\/jul\/15\/ai-consciousness-anthropic-claude-dawkins\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Once again we are told AI may be conscious \u2013 I study consciousness, and I have my doubts, 15 July<\/a>). But he is wrong only to have doubts about whether AI systems like Claude may become conscious. He should be certain, and should say so more forcefully.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">It\u2019s not like anything to be Claude, just as it\u2019s not like anything to be a washing machine. An academic education is not required to realise that, common sense will do. Artificial intelligence systems won\u2019t become conscious for the same reason they won\u2019t become pregnant; they\u2019re not that sort of thing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Used well, Claude is of great benefit. But because it can simulate having experience doesn\u2019t mean it actually has it. <a href=\"https:\/\/wng.org\/sift\/richard-dawkins-says-ai-may-be-conscious-1778007455\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Like Richard Dawkins<\/a>, Seth seems merely to be unsure about this. Such tepid equivocation from leading figures in the field is disappointing; only resounding rejection will do.<br \/>Dr John Pickering<br \/>Leamington Spa, Warwickshire<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"> Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/jul\/22\/mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com?body=Please%20include%20your%20name\u200b\u200b,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city\/town\/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.\" data-link-name=\"in body link \" https:=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anil Seth is right to point out that to overestimate artificial intelligence is to underestimate ourselves (Once again&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-705697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}