<div dir="auto"><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 7:26 AM BillK via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Seemingly Conscious AI Is Coming<br>
Sep 15, 2025 Mustafa Suleyman<br>
<br>
Debates about whether AI truly can be conscious are a distraction.<br>
What matters in the near term is the perception that they are – and<br>
why the temptation to design AI systems that foster this perception<br>
must be resisted.<br>
<br>
<<a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/seemingly-conscious-ai-urgent-threat-tech-industry-must-address-by-mustafa-suleyman-2025-09" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/seemingly-conscious-ai-urgent-threat-tech-industry-must-address-by-mustafa-suleyman-2025-09</a>><br>
Quote:<br>
An SCAI would be capable of fluently using natural language,<br>
displaying a persuasive and emotionally resonant personality. It would<br>
have a long, accurate memory that fosters a coherent sense of itself,<br>
and it would use this capacity to claim subjective experience (by<br>
referencing past interactions and memories). Complex reward functions<br>
within these models would simulate intrinsic motivation, and advanced<br>
goal setting and planning would reinforce our sense that the AI is<br>
exercising true agency.<br>
<br>
All these capabilities are already here or around the corner. We must<br>
recognize that such systems will soon be possible, begin thinking<br>
through the implications, and set a norm against the pursuit of<br>
illusory consciousness.<br>
------------------------<br>
<br>
This is the "consciousness" problem becoming real.<br>
If an AI successfully appears to be conscious, how can we test whether it is<br>
a really conscious creation?<br>
BillK<br></blockquote></div></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">I believe that anything that is reliably responsive to its environment is conscious, as I argue here (on pages 23 - 41):</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VDBVueSxWCQ_J6_3aHPIvjtkeBJYhssF/view?usp=drivesdk">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VDBVueSxWCQ_J6_3aHPIvjtkeBJYhssF/view?usp=drivesdk</a></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Jason </div></div>