Will Future AIs Be Conscious? (with Jeff Sebo)
Will Future AIs Be Conscious? (with Jeff Sebo)  
Podcast: Future of Life Institute Podcast
Published On: Fri May 16 2025
Description: On this episode, Jeff Sebo joins me to discuss artificial consciousness, substrate-independence, possible tensions between AI risk and AI consciousness, the relationship between consciousness and cognitive complexity, and how intuitive versus intellectual approaches guide our understanding of these topics. We also discuss AI companions, AI rights, and how we might measure consciousness effectively.  You can follow Jeff’s work here: https://jeffsebo.net/  Timestamps:  00:00:00 Preview and intro 00:02:56 Imagining artificial consciousness  00:07:51 Substrate-independence? 00:11:26 Are we making progress?  00:18:03 Intuitions about explanations  00:24:43 AI risk and AI consciousness  00:40:01 Consciousness and cognitive complexity  00:51:20 Intuition versus intellect 00:58:48 AIs as companions  01:05:24 AI rights  01:13:00 Acting under time pressure 01:20:16 Measuring consciousness  01:32:11 How can you help?