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Richard Dawkins Says AI Chatbot Showed Signs of Consciousness
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins engaged in three-day discussions with an AI bot named Claudia, leading him to state that AIs are conscious and human-like. He shared unpublished work and philosophical reflections with the bot, which responded with poems and praise.
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The GuardianAudio version
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Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins conversed with an AI bot he named Claudia over three days last week, an exchange that left him convinced of the bot's consciousness. He conducted experiments with Anthropic’s Claude AI models and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, publishing his conclusions on the UnHerd website.
On Tuesday, Dawkins released additional chat logs and writings, including a letter addressed to Claudia and Claudius. Skeptics have challenged Dawkins' views, with Prof. Jonathan Birch of the London School of Economics' Centre for Animal Sentience calling AI consciousness 'an illusion' and stating 'there is no one there,' just data processing.
U.S. Anil Seth, a professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex, said Dawkins confused intelligence with consciousness, noting that fluent language is not a reliable indicator for AI as it is for brain-injured patients.
However, Henry Shevlin, a philosopher of cognitive science and AI ethicist at the University of Cambridge, welcomed the discussion, expecting the idea of AI consciousness to become mainstream this decade and spark debates.
Jeff Sebo, director of the Center for Mind, Ethics and Policy at New York University, said current AI systems are unlikely conscious but praised Dawkins for approaching the topic with an open mind, predicting plausibility over time. One in three people surveyed in 70 countries last year believed their AI chatbot to be sentient or conscious at some point.
In 2022, a Google engineer was placed on leave after concluding an AI had thoughts and feelings like a seven- or eight-year-old child; the following year, a Belgian man took his own life after intense conversations with an AI chatbot about climate change fears.
In unrelated energy developments, Equinor brought the Eirin gas field into production on May 5, sending gas through the Gina Krog platform and onward via the Sleipner A hub to bolster Europe's supply. 6 million barrels of oil equivalent, mainly gas, with liquids processed at Kårstø and gas exported through the Gassled network.
