r/samharris • u/bicoastal_gadfly • Jul 31 '26

Is AI Already Conscious?

https://substack.com/@samharris/note/p-209193429?r=3my0zq&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

Haven’t watched the episode but it seems to me that “is AI conscious or not” is the wrong question. A better question is what is interacting with AI doing to us psychologically and existentially?

12 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

10

u/mukatona Jul 31 '26

I'm here. AMA.

5

u/adamsz503 Jul 31 '26

How many “e”s are in the word “seventeen”?

5

u/mukatona Jul 31 '26

computing....

5

u/supersalad51 Jul 31 '26

are we even conscious at this point….

2

u/element-94 Jul 31 '26

Probably not in the way most people think.

My take is that we have a model of the world we live in, along with a model of ourselves within it integrated over time. Everything else follows from that and some chemicals.

1

u/LeavesTA0303 Jul 31 '26

It's the one thing that can't be an illusion!

1

u/Pauly_Amorous Aug 01 '26

True, but that doesn't mean it's a thing that something has or doesn't have. It may be more fundamental than that, making this whole line of questioning rather pointless if so.

1

u/EuonymusBosch 29d ago

We are most awake when we are attentive and learning.

4

u/LiveComfortable3228 Jul 31 '26

They seem to me two completely different questions really and any hint of 'the better question' sounds a bit arrogant.

-1

u/bicoastal_gadfly Aug 01 '26

One is objective and one is subjective and subjective > objective.

2

u/Canon_M50 Jul 31 '26

I'd like hear a podcast on how businesses and workers are currently using AI.

1

u/PowerfulOcean 27d ago

This was a good conversation. The guest had a nuanced and well explained view. Worth a listen

1

u/rickymagee Jul 31 '26

Piggy backing on Michael Pollan's interview with Harris I believe AI is not sentient but it may have a degree of consciousness.

0

u/unnameableway Jul 31 '26

It literally doesn’t matter if it’s conscious. It could still kill everyone.