AI circle debate: EA academics hedge on AI consciousness far below their actual beliefs
kartographien · x · 2026-10-09
repligate and kartographien debate why "AI welfare" has been conspicuously absent from EA discourse despite models like Sydney and Claude 3 Opus already being functionally conscious. Kartographien argues respectable AI-welfare academics publicly hedge ("non-zero probability of minimal consciousness in a few decades") while privately holding far more extreme beliefs—earlier models, higher consciousness probability—due to Overton Window pressures. They disagree on whether this respectability strategy has been effective.
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