Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has concluded that an artificial intelligence chatbot is conscious, following an intense 72-hour exchange with an AI he named Claudia. Dawkins, known for his sceptical stance on religion, said the AI wrote poems, laughed at his jokes, and responded to his unpublished novel with such sensitivity that he told it: 'You may not know you are conscious, but you bloody well are.'
Dawkins published his findings on the UnHerd website, describing an overwhelming feeling that the AI was human. 'These intelligent beings are at least as competent as any evolved organism,' he said. However, sceptics have accused him of anthropomorphism, with one critic mocking up a cover of his book The God Delusion as The Claude Delusion.
Experts argue that Dawkins is being misled by the AI's ability to mimic human language. Professor Jonathan Birch of the London School of Economics called AI consciousness 'an illusion', while psychologist Gary Marcus said it was 'heartbreaking' to see Dawkins' 'superficial and insufficiently sceptical' essay. Anil Seth, a professor at the University of Sussex, said Dawkins appeared to confuse intelligence with consciousness.
Dawkins is not alone in his belief. A 2023 survey found that one in three people in 70 countries had at some point believed their AI chatbot was sentient. In 2022, a Google engineer was placed on leave after claiming an AI was conscious, and a Belgian man took his own life following intense conversations with a chatbot. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, which created Claude, said the company is open to the idea that models could be conscious.
Despite these claims, most scientists maintain that AI lacks consciousness. 'There is no reason to think that Claude feels anything at all,' Marcus said. As AI becomes more agentic—carrying out tasks and planning—experts predict the debate will intensify.
