Richard Dawkins' chatbot isn't conscious - it's just all talk. My take on the Dawkins/Claude kerfuffle in The Nerve
Scientist, Author, Speaker
The science of consciousness
Understanding the biological basis of conscious experience is one of the great challenges for 21st Century Science. Check out my essay The Mythology of Conscious AI, which won the 2025 Berggruen Prize Essay Competition and my new main-stage TED talk.
A 2021 Book of the Year (New Statesman, Economist, Bloomberg, Five Books), a 2021 Science Book of the Year (Guardian, Financial Times). Being You is out now in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audio.
Interviews and conversations.
Academic and public engagement projects.
What’s coming up and what’s happened.
Consciousness at TED
Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality
My main-stage TED talk has more than 15 million views.
TED Talk 2026
Why AI is unlikely to become conscious
I won the 2025 Berggruen Prize Essay Competition for "The Mythology of Conscious AI" - read it now in Noema.
The call for commentary proposals for my new paper 'Conscious artificial intelligence and biological naturalism' is now open at BBS. Deadline is June 12th.
"Inside the big bet on consciousness". My take on the adversarial collaboration between two consciousness theories, in Nautilus.
What gives meaning to life? I asked my Mum .. in today's Guardian (along with 14 others)
"A science of consciousness beyond pseudo-science and pseudo-consciousness" Our comment (Àlex Gómez-Marin & me) on the IIT clash; out now in Nature Neuroscience.
I'm delighted to make the Clarivate 'Highly Cited' researcher list, for the fifth year running - along with 5 other Sussex academics:
Silicon-based digital AI is vanishingly unlikely to be, or become conscious. Short version here (); longer version here (https://www.noemamag.com/the-mythology-of-conscious-ai/); really long version here:
While philosophers ponder AI consciousness, the models have ideas of their own. https://www.wired.com/story/who-cares-if-ai-is-conscious-its-basically-alive/?utm_brand=wired&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=aud-dev
I really enjoyed chatting with Christof Koch and @heather_berlin on their excellent Perception Box podcast - all about the nature of perception and self: listen here & watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bR-NHlMN7Y
Are you a high-achieving early career researcher? Apply to be a Global Scholar in our @CIFAR_News Brain, Mind, and Consciousness Program. CAD 100k unrestricted research support over 2 years, & access to an incredible network of peers and colleagues.