Event
About the Event
As AI continues to develop, it is natural to ask whether AI systems can be not only intelligent, but also conscious. In this talk, Anil Seth examines the science of AI consciousness. Seth will start by considering why some people think AI might develop consciousness, identifying some biases that might lead us astray, then asking what it would take for conscious AI to be a realistic prospect, pushing back against some standard assumptions such as the notion that computation provides a sufficient basis for consciousness. Seth will instead make the case for taking seriously the possibility that consciousness might depend on our nature as living organisms – a form of biological naturalism. Seth will end by exploring some implications of AI that either actually is, or convincingly seems to be, conscious. If we sell our minds too cheaply to our machine creations, we not only overestimate them – we underestimate ourselves.
About the Speaker
Anil Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience and Director of the Centre for Consciousness Science at the University of Sussex. He is also Co-Director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Program on Brain, Mind and Consciousness and a European Research Council Advanced Investigator. He has published more than 200 research papers and has been recognized by Web of Science, over several years, as being in the top 0.1% of researchers worldwide. His 2017 TED talk has been viewed over fifteen million times. In 2023 he was awarded the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize, and in 2024 Prospect Magazine listed him as one of the Top 25 global thinkers. His book Being You: A New Science of Consciousness was a Sunday Times top 10 bestseller and named ‘Book of the Year’ for 2021 by many periodicals.
This event is co-sponsored by the NYU Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness and the NYU Center for Bioethics.
View the event