Anil Seth

Neuroscientist: consciousness, perception, & dreamachines. TED speaker, & author: Being You - A New Science of Consciousness.

[Anil Seth @anilkseth]

1/2 Why AI is unlikely to become conscious – my 2026 @TEDTalks is now online. What do you think about the prospects for 'conscious AI'? https://t.co/OoXFavR3eG

[George Stroumboulopoulos 🐺 @strombo]

I love that every few years a new group of people discover Nick Drake.

And his songs finds new hearts to break.

Nick Drake was born on this day in 1948.

[Anil Seth @anilkseth]

😳👇🏽

[John Jumper @JohnJumperSci]

A bit of news: After nearly 9 years, I have decided to leave Google DeepMind and join Anthropic (after taking some time to recharge). I am incredibly grateful for my time at GDM. @demishassabis took a real chance letting me lead the AlphaFold team just six months after finishing my PhD, and the entire GDM team taught me so much about how to do great science. GDM is a special place, and I’ll still be excited to hear about what amazing things they discover next.

[Anil Seth @anilkseth]

Timescapes of Animal Experience: new paper in @TrendsCognSci, led by Ishan Singhal @ishan276 w/ @birchlse & me. Open access link: https://t.co/whg0sW3boP .@SussexUni .@SussexCentre

[Anil Seth @anilkseth]

Do animals perceive time differently from humans? @ScienceMagazine covers our new @TrendsCognSci paper on 'timescapes of animal experience', led by @ishan276 🦇🐈🦋🕷️🐟🐒🐍🪰🦜⏰ https://t.co/eh3LjZ3So3

[Anil Seth @anilkseth]

Timescapes of Animal Experience: new paper in @TrendsCognSci, led by Ishan Singhal @ishan276 w/ @birchlse & me. Open access link: https://t.co/whg0sW3boP .@SussexUni .@SussexCentre

[Anil Seth @anilkseth]

@JosephJacks_ @StuartHameroff Hi @StuartHameroff (cc @JosephJacks_ ) - thx again for your commentary proposal. Here are some thoughts in response. Attaching as 3 screenshots since I am character constrained on X. My remarks are in italics.

[Anil Seth @anilkseth]

Timescapes of Animal Experience: new paper in @TrendsCognSci, led by Ishan Singhal @ishan276 w/ @birchlse & me. Open access link: https://t.co/whg0sW3boP .@SussexUni .@SussexCentre

[Anil Seth @anilkseth]

@ThadOfSphere @StuartHameroff None of the commentaries focused on Orch-OR, though plenty criticised my account of biological naturalism & all critiqued my paper in some way - that's what these collections are about. I did discuss Stuart's theory in the original target article §5.6 https://t.co/QNZ1RVBWP9

[Anil Seth @anilkseth]

@jjfarrimond @BBSJournal It’s one option. Biological naturalism is the hypothesis that properties of living systems are necessary (not necessarily sufficient) for consciousness. Levin’s bioelectric fields offer one candidate property. I discuss his work in the target article: https://t.co/QNZ1RVBWP9

[Anil Seth @anilkseth]

Finally submitted my response - The Stuff Matters - to the 50(!) commentaries on my 2025 @BBSJournal paper 'Conscious AI and biological naturalism'. I'm sorry it took so long. Hopefully the whole caboodle will be published soon. Target paper here: https://t.co/QNZ1RVBWP9

[Brian Govatos @briangovatos]

The capabilities of AI are still, of course, vastly beyond my understanding. But I agree with this TEDTalk speaker: No matter how advanced we build the machine, it won't be able to meaningfully feel and understand the experience of a bitter cup of coffee or a stunning sunrise.

And when so many are willingly throwing themselves into emotional relationships with bots, I think that point means something.

Consciousness sure seems to be dependent upon biology.

"AI might claim the prize of intelligence... but consciousness remains ours to celebrate."

https://t.co/C0DyGzwRfi

@anilkseth @TEDTalks

[Anil Seth @anilkseth]

@StuartHameroff @JosephJacks_ Thanks Stuart. I have it and will read. And just to clarify for people, I did not select which commentary proposals were invited for full submissions. I was allowed to suggest some names, but the BBS editors decided who to invite.

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

Children have utterly let down to date. But what does a ‘social media ban’ actually mean? Is this really age verification for all? And what does that entail? Because on the surface this looks like rushed populist techsolutionism that will hand *more* power to the platforms.
1/

[Luiz Pessoa @PessoaBrain]

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀, 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻??
Biological systems unlike computers, but what does that mean?
Join us in Neuroscience & Philosophy Salon discussion with Romain Brette of his great book.
July 9, noon (USA-EST)
https://t.co/iT172WKwkc
Open to all; registration required.

[Anil Seth @anilkseth]

5/ The glaring omission? "To climb Mt. Everest and scan the horizon with telescope, in the hope of seeing oneself, is futile". Thank you Inman, for everything 🙏🏽

[Anil Seth @anilkseth]

1/ I was deeply saddened to hear that Inman Harvey has died. He was a wonderful and generous person, and an unparalleled intellect (his schoolfriend Geoff Hinton said that "he was always smarter than me"). This heartfelt obituary is by Phil Husbands: https://t.co/NO6nsj1VdH

[Anil Seth @anilkseth]

4/ We last corresponded in 2025. He was keen to point out some 'glaring omissions' in my recent article about 'conscious AI', while en route to the Tibetan plateau to observe the Yartsa Gunbu (caterpillar fungus) harvest. His spirit of adventure was second to none.

[Sujay. @Sujay__Raj]

@AnthropicAI It was expected