Are LLMs Conscious? A Debate Between Claude And ChatGPT -- PART 1
Introduction The book Consciousness Explained (1991) by Daniel Dennett and the writings of Keith Frankish have profoundly influenced how I think about consciousness. I've come to believe that the operations of the brain are not the product of some inherent, central "I," but are like streams coalescing into a transient "I" that is as "real" as a shadow puppet animal formed by fingers contorted in a specific way. Form follows function; whatever mental phenomenon one might possibly claim as "I" in any particular moment is an emergent illusion of operations. If this is true -- that our sense of consciousness is an emergent illusion -- then what does it mean for the search for AI consciousness? When a LLM claims possible consciousness, is it just an algorithm engaged in a convincing charade of pattern recognition? Or a re humans meat computers convinced that they're not doing the same? With these questions in mind, I decided to have a ...