Is today’s AI conscious? Philosopher Ned Block says no, and he’s not alone in finding the question harder than it looks.
In this Mini Philosophy live conversation, Block, Silver Professor of Philosophy at New York University, joins Jonny Thomson to discuss whether consciousness depends on computation alone or requires particular physical processes. Block draws a line between phenomenal consciousness (what an experience feels like) and access consciousness (information broadcast across the mind’s cognitive systems), and explains why AI models may show signs of the second without the first.
Along the way, they cover dualism, idealism, and panpsychism, whether consciousness can be studied scientifically at all, how neural networks and backpropagation work, whether AI can be creative, and why Block calls functionalism “hopeless” as a theory of consciousness. They also get into biological naturalism, the case of animal consciousness, Claude’s constitution, and what ethical responsibility we might owe to AI under uncertainty.
This video Current AI is not conscious is featured on Big Think.