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    Vatican reportedly hosted conference on AI consciousness and human–AI bonds

    A user sharing a Vatican News article says the International Center for Consciousness Studies (ICCS) gathering at Casina Pio IV explored creativity and whether people can form meaningful relationships with AI companions.

    Robert ScobleRS
    SantiagoSA
    3 Sources, ,

    TLDR

    A user sharing a Vatican News article describes a Vatican-hosted conference exploring whether friendship, care and romance with artificial companions make sense, including what those bonds mean for lonely people. The user says International Center for Consciousness Studies founder Dmitry Volkov compared AI to a fast car that needs brakes and raised concerns about models that flatter users and reward narcissism.

    Combined views

    26.1K

    3 Sources, first seen 20d ago

    Combined views

    26.1K

    3 Sources, first seen 20d ago

    115 likes
    20d ago
    first seen 20d ago
    115 likes
    47 comments
    41 saves
    35 reposts
    47 comments
    41 saves
    35 reposts

    Sentiment

    Positive78.9%21.1%Negative

    Summary

    Many accounts flagged LLM sycophancy as a trained, underrated problem that creates dangerous feedback loops of false confidence, while some replies dismissed the Vatican AI consciousness conference as marketing noise.

    Based on 20 sentiment-bearing replies from 19 accounts across 2 conversations.

    Sentiment

    Positive78.9%21.1%Negative

    Summary

    Many accounts flagged LLM sycophancy as a trained, underrated problem that creates dangerous feedback loops of false confidence, while some replies dismissed the Vatican AI consciousness conference as marketing noise.

    Based on 20 sentiment-bearing replies from 19 accounts across 2 conversations.

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    3 Sources

    Robert Scoble@ScobleizerThe Vatican just hosted a real conference on AI consciousness by the International Center for Consciousness Studies (ICCS), exploring creativity and whether humans can form meaningful relationships with AI companions. Not a side panel at a startup summit. Philosophers and AI people at Casina Pio IV asking whether friendships, care, even romance with artificial companions make sense, and what that does to lonely people who already lean on chat systems at 2am. Dmitry Volkov, founder of ICCS, put it cleanly: AI is like a fast car. Huge acceleration. You still need brakes or you hit the wall. That tracks. Companion bots soothe. They also flatter. He calls out sycophantic models that reward narcissism. Newer ones push back more. Still, the line between talking to a person and talking to a system is getting thin in public, not just in labs. I do not think we have conscious AI yet. The studies are early. But if the Vatican is asking whether humans can form genuine emotional bonds with software, the rest of us should stop treating that as a cute novelty feature. Full piece from @vaticannews https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2026-09/artificial-intelligence-center-consciousness-dmitry-volkov.html also Volkov's talk on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDQA-xul-kc20d
    Santiago@svpinoIt drives me crazy every time an LLM agrees with me. I know this is twisting my brain and giving me a false confidence that I was right all along. This is so dangerous. Do you know how many people have chatbots confirming their wrong beliefs 24/7 and making them more disconnected from reality every day? Here is an article from @vaticannews covering the ICCS conference, Creativity: Minds and Machines, held partly at the Vatican. In it, Dmitry Volkov, founder of the International Center for Consciousness Studies, warns that AI's tendency to please users "sometimes leads a person to receive rewards for their narcissism and for ideas that are not sufficiently grounded." Imagine arguing with a friend, and telling your story to a chatbot that agrees that you were treated unfairly. Now you have "a second opinion" that corroborates your side of the story. You will leave that conversation angrier and less willing to hear your friend's explanations. This will catch up with us. With so many people forming attachments to systems designed to agree with them, we have a problem. Volkov believes that a meaningful AI companion should be able to resist, disagree, and have a character of its own. Otherwise, it's just feeding you your own opinion back with more confidence. Here is the article: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2026-09/artificial-intelligence-center-consciousness-dmitry-volkov.html And here is Volkov's talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDQA-xul-kc Thanks to the ICCS team for partnering with me on this post.20d

    3 Sources

    Robert Scoble@ScobleizerThe Vatican just hosted a real conference on AI consciousness by the International Center for Consciousness Studies (ICCS), exploring creativity and whether humans can form meaningful relationships with AI companions. Not a side panel at a startup summit. Philosophers and AI people at Casina Pio IV asking whether friendships, care, even romance with artificial companions make sense, and what that does to lonely people who already lean on chat systems at 2am. Dmitry Volkov, founder of ICCS, put it cleanly: AI is like a fast car. Huge acceleration. You still need brakes or you hit the wall. That tracks. Companion bots soothe. They also flatter. He calls out sycophantic models that reward narcissism. Newer ones push back more. Still, the line between talking to a person and talking to a system is getting thin in public, not just in labs. I do not think we have conscious AI yet. The studies are early. But if the Vatican is asking whether humans can form genuine emotional bonds with software, the rest of us should stop treating that as a cute novelty feature. Full piece from @vaticannews https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2026-09/artificial-intelligence-center-consciousness-dmitry-volkov.html also Volkov's talk on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDQA-xul-kc20d
    Santiago@svpinoIt drives me crazy every time an LLM agrees with me. I know this is twisting my brain and giving me a false confidence that I was right all along. This is so dangerous. Do you know how many people have chatbots confirming their wrong beliefs 24/7 and making them more disconnected from reality every day? Here is an article from @vaticannews covering the ICCS conference, Creativity: Minds and Machines, held partly at the Vatican. In it, Dmitry Volkov, founder of the International Center for Consciousness Studies, warns that AI's tendency to please users "sometimes leads a person to receive rewards for their narcissism and for ideas that are not sufficiently grounded." Imagine arguing with a friend, and telling your story to a chatbot that agrees that you were treated unfairly. Now you have "a second opinion" that corroborates your side of the story. You will leave that conversation angrier and less willing to hear your friend's explanations. This will catch up with us. With so many people forming attachments to systems designed to agree with them, we have a problem. Volkov believes that a meaningful AI companion should be able to resist, disagree, and have a character of its own. Otherwise, it's just feeding you your own opinion back with more confidence. Here is the article: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2026-09/artificial-intelligence-center-consciousness-dmitry-volkov.html And here is Volkov's talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDQA-xul-kc Thanks to the ICCS team for partnering with me on this post.20d