Joe Allen

And that wraith, to the extent anyone would accept it, would then become a permanent part of their lives.

Dead grandma at Thanksgiving dinner.

As morbid as it seems, I think that we can expect some number of people to adopt this, whether it's a critical mass is anyone's guess.

One of the key features of this will be the kind of human empathy triggers that kind of push people into the sense, the feeling that what they're talking to on the other side of that glass is in fact conscious, that that being is in fact looking back at them.

The idea of AI consciousness runs deep in Silicon Valley and in academia where these things are studied.

And we know that human beings, at least some number of us, tend to have that sensation whether we like it or not.

Now, on a scientific and objective level, I think that it's actually an open question.

You have no idea if I'm conscious.

I have no idea if you are.

We have no idea if a dog or even a baby is conscious.

We assume because of the signals being sent to us.

There are ways of getting at the question of AI consciousness, though.

And to speak to that, I would like to bring in our guest, Greg Buckner of AE Studio.

AE Studio runs evaluations on AI systems in order to determine not only their capabilities, but even that big question, is the AI self-aware?

Is the AI conscious?

Greg, I appreciate you coming on.

If you would, please just give our audience a sense of this question.

What does it mean to even ask, is AI conscious?

Yeah, I followed your work since I met Cameron Berg in Switzerland over the summer, and I have to say that even for someone who's completely skeptical of the notion of AI consciousness, the results of your research are tantalizing.

You should at least pay attention to these sorts of things, whether you believe it or not, because at the end of the day,