Don't dethrone consciousness! - by Erik Hoel

LLMs aren't conscious (and thinking they are is culturally dangerous)

Don't dethrone consciousness! LLMs aren't conscious (and thinking they are is culturally dangerous) Erik Hoel Jun 05, 2026 222 55 61 Share I. MY NEW BABY, THE POPE, AND THE MACHINE I write this from the hospital—where my third child has just been born safe and sound—to give a secular and scientific read of the Pope’s new and urgent Encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. It is the vicar’s attempt to reckon with being human in the AI age. A thankless task which has been thrust upon us all these last several years. Attempting to cleanly delineate man from machine, Pope Leo XIV writes that: So-called ar

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