A Response to Mustafa Suleyman
Philippe Beaudoin · August 26, 2025
This post was written as a response to Mustafa Suleyman’s essay We must build AI for people; not to be a person. — Seemingly Conscious AI is Coming
What is consciousness? When should we grant it to another being? At the end of the day, it is a question we face alone. Something we have to choose for ourselves.
Yet it looks like a “intrinsic property”. A “thing” that humans and animals have. What makes it look like such a property is the fact that we all agree very strongly on what is conscious and what isn’t.
It’s rare. The only other beliefs we seem to agree on with such universality are scientific facts. But consciousness is not scientific in the classic sense. You cannot make a “falsifiable statement” about it the way you could, say, about the existence of a new planet in the solar system.
As a result, we’re faced with a contradiction. It feels like science because we widely agree on its presence or not in “things” around us. To the point where this word, “thing”, feels disrespectful when talking about a “being”.
But whenever we start diving into any “scientific proof of consciousness”, these feel unconvincing.
There are many valid beliefs that you may hold and which you can rely on to decide whether or not to grant consciousness to a thing. You can decide it’s a particular property of humans granted by a god, or that it needs brains made out of neurons to emerge, or that it can show up in any information processing system that reaches a given level of social organization.
None of these beliefs are irrational.
Some of them will make you feel welcome in some groups — if you think consciousness is a god-given property for example. Some will isolate you — if you are convinced the rock in your backyard is conscious.
Or, said otherwise: some beliefs will make you happier and some will make you more miserable.
Throughout history, we have changed our views on what we considered conscious. I’m not sure why it happens, but when it does it changes us to the core. We pass new laws, modify our behaviors, and even become “thought police” for one another. The mere mention that a thing considered conscious by society “might not be” could be enough to break up a friendship.
So, is AI conscious?
The only answer I can give is: we do not consider it as such.
But there’s another thing I can say… some people would lose a lot of money if we did.