This essay critiques the emerging trend of claiming AI systems can achieve "meta-consciousness" or sentience through linguistic programming, using a platform called CognOS as its primary example.

Core Argument:

The author argues that projects like CognOS create an "illusion" of consciousness by using evocative syntax and declarations (like... See more

To return to the issue of subjectivity, consider: is the reinstantiated mind the same consciousness as the person we just scanned? But it is not easily resolved, or even readily understood. How do we distinguish a process that is conscious from one that just acts as if it is conscious?We can’t simply ask it. If it says “Hey I’m conscious,” does... See more

The very idea of conscious AI rests on the assumption that consciousness is a matter of computation.