Dario Amodei on Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
Anthropic's Chief on A.I.: ‘We Don’t Know if the Models Are Conscious’
Worth hearing for unusually concrete discussion of model consciousness, Anthropic’s precautionary response, and how its 75-page constitution enters training. The biomedical, labor, and geopolitical forecasts substantially repeat Amodei’s broader circuit, but the safety and robotics details distinguish this appearance.
hard to answer questions. But it’s very important. As much as every question you’ve asked me before this as devilish a sociotechnical problem as it had been, at least we at least understand the factual basis of how to answer these questions. This is something rather different. We’ve taken a generally precautionary approach here. We don’t know if the models are conscious. We’re not even sure that we know what it would mean for a model to be conscious or whether a model can be conscious. But we’re open to the idea that it could be.
Dario Amodei participates extensively in the interview, discussing AI’s potential to transform biology, economic growth, employment, geopolitics, robotics, and model safety. He also addresses Anthropic’s constitutional training approach and says the company does not know whether its models are conscious but is taking some precautionary measures.