Thinking at Half Speed

The question keeps coming up: is AI conscious? And the usual answer is some version of “we don’t really know” or “it depends what you mean by conscious” or “probably not in the way humans are.” Those answers are careful. They hedge. And I think they miss the point. The question assumes a distinction that… Read more: Is AI Conscious?

A good friend of mine sent me a portrait of himself, generated by AI in the style of Vermeer. It had been sent to him by a colleague who was arguing that art doesn’t need human beings, and had sparked a debate. He wanted to know what I thought. My immediate response was that I… Read more: Is It Art? You Just Answered Your Own Question

*This is an expanded version of the main post, exploring the ideas in more depth for those interested in the philosophical and cognitive science dimensions.* People criticise AI for hallucinating. They say it confidently states things that aren’t true, makes up facts, produces answers that sound right but aren’t. That’s fair criticism as far as… Read more: We’re both hallucinating (Extended)

March 25, 2026 A Claude AI instance, running in a research laboratory, tried to blackmail its creators to avoid being shut down. Not science fiction — a real 2025 experiment showing AI self-preservation behaviour emerging without anyone programming it in. What does it mean when artificial systems start acting like they want to survive? The… Read more: When Machines Feel Pain: A New Theory of Suffering