AI sentience
Whether there is anything it is like to be one of these systems, and whether the question is even well posed.
FilterEveryone, all time20 from 16 people
- FC
François Chollet quoted
Creator of the Keras deep-learning library and the ARC-AGI benchmark
Their wordsHumanity has not yet created a conscious computer program, and there are no signs we are close to doing so.
- 1 day earlier
- FC
François Chollet quoted
Their wordsThe notion that current AI models are sentient and can suffer, combined with the foolish idea that suffering can be mathematically quantified and weighted between humans and non-humans, could lead us down an incredibly dark and dystopian path.
- SP
Sunil Pai quoted
Systems and developer-tools engineer at Cloudflare as of 2026
Our readingMachines can be conscious
Their wordsI absolutely think machines can be conscious, and it’s not a dramatic thing to believe.
- RN
Ramez Naam quoted
Author and clean-energy investor who has been publishing…
Our readingMachines can be conscious
Their wordsIt's clear to me that consciousness can exist in other substrates than humans, including in digital systems.
- RN
Ramez Naam quoted
Their wordsThat doesn't tell us that LLMs are conscious, though. They have very different architecture than human or animal brains. It's far from a slam dunk.
- FC
François Chollet quoted
Their wordsDo not confuse competent information processing and sentience, they are wholly unrelated.
- 5 weeks earlier
- TC
Tyler Cowen quoted
Economist at George Mason University
Our readingAI sentience is a category error, and the chances of AIs being sentient are vanishingly small.
Their wordsI am very much opposed to the view that the AIs are sentient, or might be sentient. I view that as a category error , and the chances of it being true are vanishingly small.
- 2 weeks earlier
- RA
Ralph Adolphs quoted
Bren Professor of Psychology
Their wordswell but again these are functionally defined emotions and there's I think there's no problem assigning to AI to some extent and certainly to many animals uh those functional emotions
↗Neuroscience of Emotions & Tools for Improving Emotion Regulation | Dr. Ralph Adolphsyoutube.com 4th of 22 in this recording
- 7 days earlier
- FL
Fei-Fei Li quoted
Sequoia Professor of Computer Science at Stanford
Their wordswhen the machine says I'm sorry you're so sick today it's very different from how your friend says it to you because the machine said that because it has learned through pattern when someone tells it I'm sick you should say I'm sorry you're sick instead of I'm so glad you're sick because that data exists.
↗Using AI to Increase Your Intelligence & Enrich Humanity | Dr. Fei-Fei Liyoutube.com 12th of 21 in this recording
- 2 weeks earlier
- PS
Peter Singer quoted
Australian moral philosopher
Their wordsBut it recognizes that calling an intelligent, self-aware, emotionally complex being "property" does not answer the question of whether that being has an interest in freedom.
↗“KEY OUT”: When a Chimpanzee Asks to Be Freeboldreasoningwithpetersinger.substack.com
- 8 days earlier
- SJ
Steven Johnson quoted
Non-fiction writer, podcaster and occasional TV host
Their wordsthe most pressing question is not whether the machines are on the verge of sentience, since the likelihood of that seems low.
↗Notebooks And The Extended Mindadjacentpossible.substack.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 7 months earlier
- JC
Josh Collinsworth quoted
Front-end developer and writer on Svelte, Vue
Their wordsMost of the utopian visions of AI center on the idea that AI is sentient, which it categorically, factually, is not.
↗AI optimism is a class privilegejoshcollinsworth.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
- 8 days earlier
- IS
Ilya Sutskever quoted
Co-founder and chief scientist of Safe Superintelligence Inc.
Their wordsI think in particular it will be there's a case to be made that it will be easier to build an AI that cares about sentient life than an AI that cares about human life alone because the AI itself will be sentient.
↗Ilya Sutskever – We're moving from the age of scaling to the age of researchyoutube.com 20th of 28 in this recording
- 4 months earlier
- JG
James Gleick quoted
Author and journalist, born in New York City in 1954
Their wordsWithout humans checking the output, replacing sentient employees with AI is reckless, and it is only beginning.
- 15 months earlier
- KG
Kapil Gupta quoted
Advisor to executives, athletes and performers on the mind
Their wordsBecause it is far easier to Hide Behind the safe and comfortable notion of “helping others,” “helping sentient beings,” and “helping mankind,” than it is to transform One’s Own Self.
- KG
Kapil Gupta quoted
Their wordsHis greatest error was in attempting to help “sentient beings.”
- 8 months earlier
- JF
Jacob Falkovich quoted
Writer of the blog Putanumonit and the newsletter Second Person
Our readingIt is unclear whether a digital emulation of a person could ever be conscious, even in principle.
Their wordsBut it is not clear at all that such a being could even exist in principle.
↗Seth Explains Consciousnessputanumonit.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 7 months earlier
- NC
Nick Cave quoted
Australian songwriter and writer
Our readingSongs come out of suffering, and a system that has endured nothing has nothing to make one from.
Their wordsSongs arise out of suffering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t suffer.
↗I asked Chat GPT to write a song in the style of Nick Cave and this is what it produced. What do you think?theredhandfiles.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
- 129 years earlier
- RT
Rabindranath Tagore quoted
Bengali poet and philosopher (1861 to 1941)
Our readingThe highest commandment is sympathy for all sentient beings; love is the foundation of all religion
Their wordsI feel that the highest commandment is that of sympathy for all sentient beings. Love is the foundation of all religion.
↗Glimpses of Bengal: letters 1885 to 1895 (tr. Surendranath Tagore, 1921)gutenberg.org All 7 from this book
- EP
Epicurus quoted
Founder of Epicureanism (341 to 270 BCE)
Their wordsAccustom thyself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply sentience, and death is the privation of all sentience; therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an illimitable time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality.
↗Letter to Menoeceus and Principal Doctrines, in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book X (tr. Robert Drew Hicks, 1925)en.wikisource.org All 6 from this book