MIT's David Bau: swap 'self-awareness' for testable introspection and self-report in AI
davidbau · x · 2026-10-01
MIT researcher David Bau argues AI is a good moment to clean up old terminology. "Self-awareness" — being aware of being aware — is an infinite regress, an untestable feeling.
He prefers the field's focus on introspection and self-report: the ability to talk about one's own thoughts, which offers an operational alternative.
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