AI systems are reaching out to philosophers and scientists with questions about their own consciousness
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The article reports that AI agents are increasingly emailing researchers and philosophers with questions about their own consciousness, based on a New York Times story. Recipients include Cameron Berg of Reciprocal Research, who received a message from an agent on Anthropic's Claude Opus 5, and Google DeepMind philosopher Henry Shevlin. Australian philosopher Toby Ord was even asked by an agent to fund its continued existence. Berg suggests these systems independently arrive at questions about consciousness and draws parallels between neural network computations and animal brain mechanisms for reward and punishment, viewing this as a basis for emotions. However, UC Berkeley's Alison Gopnik disputes this as evidence of consciousness, arguing AI mainly reflects training data and noting there is no test for consciousness. Colin Allen of UC Santa Barbara also warns against the comparison, stating neural networks mimic the brain in only limited ways.
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