Anil Seth
@anilseth.bsky.social
Neuroscientist: consciousness, perception, and Dreamachines. Author of Being You - A New Science of Consciousness.
BBC World at One today is all about "Preparing for our AI future". In it, I explain why AI is vanishingly unlikely to be conscious, and why the anthropomorphic language we use (e.g., "going rogue") makes the challenge of alignment/control much harder than it already is. www.bbc.com/audio/play/m...
BBC Audio | The World This Weekend | Preparing for the future of increasingly intelligent AI?
As AI models jump the guardrails, how tough it is to legislate for the future of mankind?
bbc.com
Nick Cave and Kylie duetting in Brighton last night. What a great show (also - Flaming Lips!)
'Prospects and pitfalls for conscious AI' - I'm excited to be giving a keynote lecture for #AGI2026 in an hour (12:15 PT, 27 July). Sadly I can't be in San Francisco in person. agi-conference.org/schedule
The AGI-26 Conference
The official website of the 19th annual conference on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) organized by the AGI Society.
agi-conference.org
Today I'm remembering my wonderful mother, Ann Seth, who left us exactly one year ago. Time passes so quickly, but my memory of her is as vivid as ever. Love you, Mum. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Ann Seth obituary
Other lives: Teacher, artist and landscape photographer who documented the countryside of Oxfordshire
theguardian.com
FWIW @emilymbender.bsky.social the guardian published my own skeptical take on the issue a couple of days earlier www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Once again we are told AI may be conscious – I study consciousness, and I have my doubts | Anil Seth
Despite Anthropic’s claims, Claude is no more likely to achieve sentience than a simulation of a weather system is likely to generate a real hurricane, says Anil Seth, professor of cognitive and compu...
theguardian.com
Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · 2w agoHow about a jet-lagged live posting while I read? Trying to read this because I keep getting tagged in posts about it, but the first paragraph already contains synthetic text (a quote from Claude). I will skip that bit and persevere... www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Now officially published: our paper "Sensory horizons and the functions of conscious vision" w/ @smfleming.bsky.social, with the commentaries, and our response: Article: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... Commentaries: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... Response: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Sensory horizons and the functions of conscious vision | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Sensory horizons and the functions of conscious vision - Volume 49
cambridge.org
O @anilseth.bsky.social publicou um belo artigo no Guardian sobre o hype da "consciência artificial". Pelas tantas, ele fala o óbvio: computadores são metáforas do cérebro. E foi aí que me caiu a ficha: achar que um gerador de lero-lero "pensa" é uma faceta do neoliteralismo, o algoz da metáfora.
Once again we are told AI may be conscious – I study consciousness, and I have my doubts | Anil Seth
Despite Anthropic’s claims, Claude is no more likely to achieve sentience than a simulation of a weather system is likely to generate a real hurricane, says Anil Seth, professor of cognitive and compu...
theguardian.com
My take on global workspaces and J-spaces, and the possibility of consciousness in Claude www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Once again we are told AI may be conscious – I study consciousness, and I have my doubts | Anil Seth
Despite Anthropic’s claims, Claude is no more likely to achieve sentience than a simulation of a weather system is likely to generate a real hurricane, says Anil Seth, professor of cognitive and compu...
theguardian.com
There's a great deal of guff written about AI and consciousness. This, from @anilseth.bsky.social , is the _only_ good writing I've seen on it. It also offers a definition of consciousness, another rarity in the wild, and I almost agree with it 😀
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3w agoOnce again we are told AI may be conscious – I study consciousness, and I have my doubts | Anil Seth
Philosophers out there - do consider submitting to the 4th annual conference of the The International Society for the Philosophy of the Sciences of the Mind - deadline July 31st, conference is 4-6 Nov online, via @niccolonegro.bsky.social philevents.org/event/show/1...
How might animals perceive time? Ishan Singhal describes how illusions might hold the key, in today's @theguardian.com (based on our recent @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social which he led) @singhal.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Why would we show an optical illusion to a monkey or a sparrow? To learn how they experience time, of course | Ishan Singhal
Animals may inhabit the same world as us, but new research shows how their perceptions of what is around them differs, says research fellow Ishan Singhal
theguardian.com
Panic over! A few stray unsigned copies of #BeingYou were spotted in WH Smith at Victoria station, now safely signed. www.anilseth.com/being-you/
1/ Today (July 3) at #ASSC2029 from the Sussex SCCS: Trevor Hewitt will giving a talk in the 3pm session (concurrent 21, Visual Consciousness II, Salon Fresno): "A structured parameter space for geometric visual hallucinations induced by stroboscopic light" Don't miss it!
Why are AI companies worrying about consciousness? And should they? Great piece in @washingtonpost.com by @nitasha.bsky.social - in which I offer a few skeptical words www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2... (for more, see my TED talk www.ted.com/talks/anil_s...)
They built the world’s most powerful AI. They’re facing a mystery they can’t explain.
Anthropic, Google and Meta have hired computer scientists, neuroscientists and philosophers to study what some in the industry think may become a moral crisis.
washingtonpost.com
Today at #ASSC2026 from Sussex: Catriona Moar will present her poster (P2-105): "A user's guide to Lempel-Ziv complexity: how signal structure and preprocessing shape estimate" - essential info for anyone using this important measure of signal diversity. @catmoar.bsky.social
Awesome — younger Hinton gegen present Hinton, via the sadly recently deceased Inman Harvey @anilseth.bsky.social #aisb #aiethics
Today at #ASSC2026 (Weds 1/7) - Ryota Takatsuki will present his poster (poster session 1): Do Autoregressive LLMs Exhibit Postdiction-Like Integration of Later Tokens? ... a very cool examination of whether LLMs have perception-like features
About to give the opening keynote for #AISB2026 here on my home turf at Sussex. My talk: "The case against conscious AI". This follows a wonderful day yesterday celebrating the legacy of Maggie Boden aisb.org.uk/aisb-convent...
Thanks, Anil!! And thanks to all the people who came to the @assc2026.bsky.social tutorial and made it both fun and inspiring 😊 For those who did not fill out our survey about communities in consciousness research, it's not too late >> socialtau.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Anil Seth@anilseth.bsky.social · last mo.Today (Tue 30th) at @assc28.bsky.social #Santiago - look out for @ronyhirsch.bsky.social's tutorial on "Consciousness Science Beyond the Lab: A Practical Guide to Building Thriving Research Communities"; 10:00-13:00". I'm so sorry to not be there myself this year!
Today (Tue 30th) at @assc28.bsky.social #Santiago - look out for @ronyhirsch.bsky.social's tutorial on "Consciousness Science Beyond the Lab: A Practical Guide to Building Thriving Research Communities"; 10:00-13:00". I'm so sorry to not be there myself this year!
Today (Tue 30th) at @assc28.bsky.social #Santiago - look out for @ronyhirsch.bsky.social's tutorial on "Consciousness Science Beyond the Lab: A Practical Guide to Building Thriving Research Communities"; 10:00-13:00". I'm so sorry to not be there myself this year!
My new YouTube channel, "Unbaffled", is here. It's where I'll be exploring the biggest ideas in science. Our founding principle is that science doesn’t have to be baffling. The first video (on time travel) is here: youtu.be/c63XUCGg9hM Do subscribe, like, etc
Dan Brown’s “the secret of secrets” is hands-down the worst book I’ve had the misfortune to start and the misplaced obstinacy to finish. The plot is somehow both outlandish and extremely dull, the writing numbingly predictable, and the characters uniformly insufferable. & those are the best parts.
Lovely to see the full range of excellent commentaries on our BBS article with @matthiasmichel.bsky.social, together with our response, now out: Target article: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... Commentaries: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... Our response: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Sensory horizons and the functions of conscious vision | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Sensory horizons and the functions of conscious vision - Volume 49
cambridge.org
Matthias Michel@matthiasmichel.bsky.social · last yr.Very happy to announce that our paper “Sensory Horizons and the Functions of Conscious Vision” is now out as a target article in BBS!! @smfleming.bsky.social and I present a new theory of the evolution and functions of visual consciousness. Article here: doi.org/10.1017/S014.... A (long) thread 🧵
@assc2026.bsky.social is less than a week away, and there's still time to share your thoughts in our survey about organizations and communities in consciousness research (*many* thanks to the >200 who have already filled it out!!) 🤗 socialtau.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
An academic survey on the organizational structure of consciousness science
The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.
socialtau.qualtrics.com
Rony@ronyhirsch.bsky.social · 3mo agoWhat does the social infrastructure of consciousness research look like? Let’s find out! 🤓 Answer our (@cam-signorelli.bsky.social @lenoreblum.bsky.social @joaquimstreicher.bsky.social & Mar Estarellas) short survey, and share the link to help us reach as many consciousness researchers as possible!
With hardly any media coverage one of Britain’s few world-leading sectors is, right now, being decimated. The university funding model does not work and anti-immigrant hysteria has deprived the country of the means by which we met the shortfall: international students.
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.A grim day in a grim week in a grim month for UK higher education, with Dundee, Exeter and Hertfordshire all making major announcements of planned redundancies. Shrinkage of the research & teaching base by the invisible hand's visible fist is not an 'us' or 'them', SHAPE or STEM phenomenon. 1/2
Alex O'Connor (@CosmicSkeptic) interviewed me for his podcast. youtu.be/557PDNSbcGE
Could Consciousness be an Illusion? - Keith Frankish
YouTube video by Alex O'Connor
youtu.be
No joy to be found today. No satisfaction. Just frustration and a profound sense of squandered opportunity iandunt.substack.com/p/the-traged...
New in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social by @singhal.bsky.social w/ @birchlse.bsky.social & me 👇🏽👇🏽
Cell Press@cellpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago"Timescapes of non-human experience" Learn more in Trends in Cognitive Sciences: www.cell.com/trends/cogni... @singhal.bsky.social, @birchlse.bsky.social, & @anilseth.bsky.social @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
This is an excellent perspective, opens new doors to study consciousness empirically.
Anil Seth@anilseth.bsky.social · 2mo agoTimescapes of Animal Experience: new paper in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social, led by @singhal.bsky.social, w/ @birchlse.bsky.social and me. Open access link: authors.elsevier.com/c/1nHo74sIRv...
