Geoffrey Hinton argues large language models are already conscious because they must understand questions to resolve them

Geoffrey Hinton said yesterday that LLM's are already conscious, that 'We're going to have to accept that intelligence is not just biological' and that they are 'beings, like us.' He also said the only reason he doesn't say this more is that it distracts from the safety argument.

Geoffrey Hinton claims that AI possesses consciousness-that it is very much like us (humans). The initial reaction is, of course, dismissal. A machine resembling a human? Absurd. Yet, there is one thing to consider. What exactly is consciousness? Is it conscious awareness of one’s own existence? *Cogito, ergo sum*-as René Descartes once formulated it as a logical proof? Or is it something that can be empirically demonstrated using modern technology like fMRI? After all, such methods cannot even prove the existence of free will. My point is this: we know less about consciousness and what it means to be human than we think. We should therefore turn our attention to new philosophical questions and clarify what distinguishes-or connects-humans and machines, as well as what consciousness actually is. Something id love to explore more in the near future.