Check your subscription status, update your details and more. Do AIs already process information in a way that gives rise to consciousness? A leading theory of consciousness explains experience as information flowing through a global workspace in the mind.
On board a luxury yacht, neuroscientists and philosophers recently debated signs of a similar workspace in the chatbot Claude “Claude’s ears will be burning by the end of the week,” a fellow passenger tells me as I wait to pass through the airport security on Baltra Island, Ecuador. With my jet lag, it takes me a minute to realise that she is talking about Claude the chatbot, not another member of the group. We are here in the Galapagos for an exclusive workshop organised by the International Center for Consciousness Studies.
Some of the biggest names in philosophy and neuroscience meet in the lounge of a commercial yacht where, as it sails between islands, they thrash out the knotty problem of which entities – babies, octopuses and even chatbots – have an inner life. Between treks and snorkelling, we attend empanada-fuelled discussions on this “distribution problem” and whether it can be solved by contrasting how information is processed in brains and machines. Just a month before we arrived, AI company Anthropic published a paper arguing that Claude had recently developed something akin to the human mind’s “global workspace”.
According to one leading hypothesis, this is the seat of consciousness – where sights and sounds, thoughts and feelings pop into awareness. Its presence in Anthropic’s chatbot could therefore suggest a form of artificial consciousness. While it still seems highly unlikely that AIs have mental experiences like you or I, these emergent properties may allow us to understand what the differences between us are.
Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox. We'll also keep you up to date with _New Scientist_ events and special offers. #### Space ### Do we live in a simulation? If so, it could be a giant consciousness experiment Features #### Comment ### Gödel, Escher, Bach: A daunting but captivating look at consciousness Culture #### Technology ### Is AI really getting dangerously out of control?
News #### Life ### Octopuses prompt rethink of why animals evolve big brains News Why the worst El Niño killed millions – and how we can avoid a repeat### Tattoos could be turned on and off with light### Rising water is creating inland ghost forests in the US### Compressing bones releases molecules that ease traumatic brain injuries### Why many women with ADHD feel overwhelmingly controlled by their hormones### How healthy is your brain? We now know how to find out### Cameraless photography creates unique images of environmental change### The collapse of the AMOC would be catastrophic. How will we know when it’s coming?### ‘Astonishing’ weight loss when GLP-1 drug used with second medication### Number of known species of giant waterlilies almost doubles We and our partners use cookies and other technologies to collect user data .
Extract — continue reading at the source.
