Anil Seth

1/2 🎇 Good news! 🎇 The kind people at Behavioral and Brain Science have made the new collection on "Conscious AI and biological naturalism" #OpenAccess for a limited time: target article, all 50 commentaries, & my response. Go to the link and click 'save pdf': doi.org/10.1017/S014.... Do share!

🚨 Today (Fri 23rd) is the last chance to download the full 109 page BBS collection on 'conscious AI and biological naturalism', including target article, 50 commentaries, and my author response. Don't miss out (& do click 'save pdf')! doi.org/10.1017/S014...

Fantastic new paper by @rtakatsky.bsky.social 👇

Highly recommended read

"Three reasons why AI is not conscious and perhaps never will be". With thanks to @nature.com there's now a shareable link directly to a read-only pdf of the article. 👉🏽 rdcu.be/n8By815T88Ra

Get this PDF while you still can (until October 23). If you're interested in consciousness science, his 2025 article, the 50 commentaries (many of them by luminaries in the field) and his reply (all included in the PDF) are super worth your time!

Many congratulations to Suki Chan - longlisted by BIFA for 'best debut director, feature documentary' for 2026. Her film, Conscious, is premiering in Switzerland (Basel, Oct 24) and Italy (Milan, Oct 29) very soon! If you can get there, get there. Details here: theconsciousfilm.com/watch.html

Reminder - the open access deal on this BBS collection is only for one more week (until 23/10/26) - don't miss your chance to get hold of the full pdf 👇🏽

Creating Fake People is a Terrible Idea. Some companies, like Tavus (www.tavus.io) are actively celebrating creating digital avatars that are indistinguishable from humans. My view: it should not be permitted, let alone celebrated. @nautilus.bsky.social nautil.us/creating-fak...

TMLR has faced a deluge of submissions, necessitating stricter desk rejection policies due to limited reviewer capacity Co-EiC Nihar Shah reached out to authors of 10 papers slated for desk reject. Could they answer questions about their *own* submission? medium.com/@TmlrOrg/ask...

I'm honoured that #BeingYou features in the Sunday Guardian's list of "10 mind-blowing books about time, space, consciousness, & the human mind" sundayguardianlive.com/trending/10-mind-blowing-books-about-time-space-consciousness-the-human-mind-293421/amp/

Will, or can AI become conscious? In this TED talk, @anilseth.bsky.social argues that AI, as we know it now, won’t and can’t: buff.ly/TsnTCJw

People of Milan - don't miss this special screening of CONSCIOUS (www.theconsciousfilm.com) at the Fondazione Prada, October 29th. Suki Chan - the creative force behind the film - will be there to talk it, with Pr. Daniela Perani. Details here: www.fondazioneprada.org/project/huma...

"Can an AI feel pain? It can at least act as if it does". Coverage in @science.org by Tom Howarth of the recent Cameron Berg Leonard Dung & Valen Tagliabue study on functional pain vectors in LLMs, including some comments by me. www.science.org/content/arti...

This collection is a great resource for those wanting to make the case against the assignment of consciousness to AI systems

Our CIFAR Brain Mind & Consciousness program is accepting Global Scholar applications for 2027. A wonderful opportunity for ECRs to develop & lead high-risk, high-reward interdisciplinary research, expand their networks and receive leadership training. Deadline Nov 4th. cifar.ca/next-generat...

“When we identify conscious experience with seemingly human qualities like intelligence & language, we become more likely to see consciousness where it doesn’t exist, & to miss seeing it where it does.” — @anilseth.bsky.social, winner of the Berggruen Institute Essay Prize Competition

Wow this has been an exhausting week. After lots of talking with the media, I'm really feeling how much effort it takes to push through and keep the focus on the real harms when everyone is running around shouting "The skynet is falling!" or, reporter version, "Experts say the skynet is falling!" >>

Just out in Nature an extraordinary paper by @sergiuppasca.bsky.social and his team who genetically altered mice & transferred organoids derived from human neural cells into the cortex. @anilseth.bsky.social and I explore the ethical implications in a forthcoming commentary.

George Butler spoke immediately after me at this year's @ted.com conference. His talk was a moving account of how drawing in conflict zones can convey the emotions & stories that news alone cannot. I'm glad he followed me & not the other way: he brought the house down. www.ted.com/talks/george...

In my latest op-ed for TIME, I discuss why the OpenAI Hugging Face cyber incident represents a turning point for AI safety.

I wrote down my thoughts about the last several weeks of AI hell. aiguide.substack.com/p/misleading...

Does consciousness have causal power? Learn about it in my interview with Dr. Anil Seth (@anilseth.bsky.social) about his great book, Being You: A New Science of Consciousness. Full interview: youtu.be/5fqiGkg2RAw

“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter”. Blaise Pascal (probably).

This review did so much to help Being You on its way, back in 2021. So I’ll take this chance to repost it now why not 🙏🏽👇🏽

A good rule of thumb: If the press release (or stenographic news reporting masquerading as journalism) says that an "AI" did something, that's deliberate obfuscation. Software doesn't do anything of its own accord, but folks sure like to talk about it as if it does: >>

Yes! Conscious AI is unlikely in digital computers because… … the brain is analogue news.mit.edu/2026/cogniti... & digital computers run on an impoverished set of numbers blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/the-problem-...

Great to see this new piece in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social by the @mesec-community.bsky.social. I had the privilege of being the academic chair of one their meetings earlier this year and it was a wonderfully uplifting experience. MESEC is a great model for community-organised science. 👇