Machine Consciousness? Get Real! // Ron Chrisley // AI in Production 2025
Skills:
Agent Foundations90%Tool Use & Function Calling80%AI Alignment Basics70%Multi-Agent Systems60%
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//Abstract
In discussions about AI, two extreme views dominate: some claim machine consciousness is impossible, while others suggest we are already there—or that we just need larger models and more data. Both are wrong. This talk will cut through the hype and explore what consciousness actually entails, why current AI models don’t have it, and what it would take to build AI systems that might one day possess true awareness. I'll critically examine both the overblown optimism that assumes consciousness is just a scaling issue and the overly rigid skepticism that deems it forever out of reach. By breaking down the philosophical and technical dilemmas involved, we can better understand what’s missing in today’s AI and what meaningful progress in this space might look like.
//Bio
Ron Chrisley is Professor of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Sussex, where he is also Director of the Centre for Cognitive Science (COGS). He has been researching at the intersection of AI, cognitive science and philosophy for four decades. After getting his BS from Stanford in 1987 he investigated symbolic and neural-network based AI at NASA, Xerox PARC, the Helsinki University of Technology (as a Fulbright scholar), ATR Labs in Japan, and at the University of Birmingham (as a Leverhulme fellow) . In 1992 he took up a lectureship in the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences at the University of Sussex, and was awarded a DPhil from the University of Oxford in 1997. In 2019 he was a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Human-Centered AI at Stanford University. In
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