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…

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…