Philosophers vs Developers: Can Text Samplers Have a Self?

A debate over AI consciousness pits philosopher Benthamsbulldog's computational-function argument against developer Gerard Sans's falsifiable challenge: a transformer trained only on phone books or transaction records, with no assistant persona, would never develop a first-person self.

2026-10-09 ~ 2026-10-09 · 4 related posts

• Why AIs might be conscious but bricks aren't: the computational-functions argument, plus pushback — Benthamsbulldog · 2026-10-09
• Dev Pushes Back on AI Consciousness Claims: 'A Text Sampler Has No Self' — gerardsans · 2026-10-09
• Falsifiable Challenge to AI Consciousness: Train a Transformer on a Phonebook — gerardsans · 2026-10-09
• The Falsifiable LLM Self Test: Train a Transformer on a Phonebook and Ask Who It Is — gerardsans · 2026-10-09