Grady Booch: frontier models are stochastic software systems, not conscious
Grady_Booch · x · 2026-10-17
Software engineering luminary Grady Booch defines contemporary frontier models as "complex stateful reactive stochastic software-intensive systems" with some self-referential reflection — capable of coherent but unreliable outputs, mostly taught rather than learned.
He refuses the phrase "machine consciousness": it's a suitcase word full of emotion and historical baggage that distracts from computational reality.
More from AGI Musings
- "If AI can do it, it wasn't worth doing" — a take that's drawing pushback — nptacek · 2026-10-17
- Ex-OpenAI staff tell UK Parliament they faced pressure to downplay AI risks — connoraxiotes · 2026-10-17
- Dan Shipper: generation is cheap and high quality now; the next leap is editing and oversight — danshipper · 2026-10-17
- 45-year game coding veteran: agentic coding is the biggest productivity jump I've ever seen — IgorCarron · 2026-10-17
- Will AI destroy mathematics? A prominent mathematician weighs in — bgreene · 2026-10-17
- Roger Penrose: 'The I in AI is a misnomer—intelligence requires consciousness, and AI is not remotely conscious' — JosephJacks_ · 2026-10-17