Anil Seth

And my own view, developed over many years, is that consciousness is intimately connected to our nature as living creatures.

Unlike the abstract universe of computation, life is all about materiality.

Unlike algorithms, living systems are deeply embedded in flows of energy and matter, and they continually regenerate their own conditions for existence and for persistence over time.

I think we can draw a direct line from the molecular furnaces of metabolism, one billion biochemical reactions in every cell, in every second, all the way to the neural circuits that underlie each and every experience that we have, whether it's the sight of a blue sky or a pang of envy.

Every conscious experience is imbued, however subtly, with a tinge of aliveness, with some core relevance for our future survival prospects.

And at the heart of every experience, beneath even emotion, is this simple, shapeless, formless but fundamental feeling of being alive.

And in this story, it's life, not computation, that breathes the fire into the equations of experience.

And if this is right, then conscious AI will need to be living AI.

Let me bring things together.

First, we're built to see consciousness where it isn't, thanks to deep-seated psychological biases that bundle language, intelligence and consciousness together.

Second, the brain is not or not just a computer, so consciousness is unlikely to be a matter of computation, of algorithm alone.

Brains are the kinds of things which you can't separate what they do from what they are, and silicon is not up to the job.

And third, many other things about our biological brains and bodies might matter for consciousness, including a deep connection between consciousness and life.

Artificial intelligence is computer software.

It is not a living mind.

It might give the impression of being conscious, but it is vanishingly unlikely that it actually is.

I want to close by returning to why this matters so much.

Take the idea of AI welfare.

Now, there are already influential groups advocating that AI systems should have their own rights, based mainly on the idea that they might be or become conscious.

Now, if real artificial consciousness is on the way, maybe through some other technology or other pathway, then this is entirely justified.