Anil Seth replies to Jeff Sebo: AI consciousness is hugely important and massively difficult
anilkseth · x · 2026-10-02
Consciousness researcher Anil Seth replied to philosopher Jeff Sebo's pushback on his AI consciousness stance. The two share much common ground: both agree AI consciousness and welfare is massively important and massively difficult, and Seth concedes that while evidence for consciousness in current AI is weak, the probability is nonzero and likely to grow with more biologically inspired architectures.
The substantive disagreement is over how to proceed: Sebo argues efforts to assess and address AI welfare should start from acknowledging the problem's importance and difficulty, while Seth leans more on the limits of current scientific evidence. A representative exchange between the scientific and philosophical camps of the AI consciousness debate.
Related event: Researchers Clash Over AI Consciousness and Welfare(2 posts)→
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