Post #3726618
2026-07-10 22:30 UTC
The whole "We JuST DoNt KnOw iF Claude iS ConsCiOuS" pitch annoys me to no end.
The language Anthropic uses — first person narrative, assigned agency and intentions, use of human cognitive vocabulary and so on — consistently aims to imply consciousness.
"The program utilizes temporarily stores frequently accessed information relevant to multiple contexts" is a lot less magical than "Claude thinks in its J-space", "privately notices", has "intentions", "malicious goals", or a "point of view".
Replies (1)
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@jschauma@mstdn.social 2026-07-10 22:32
One side-effect of this language choice is self-deception on Anthropic's (or any / all AI developers') part. If you use language of agency, you assign yourself the role of observer, not that of the developer who controls the system. As a result, we get a lot of "we're trying to figure out how this mystical Claude thing we stumbled upon works" -- ttreating a computer program almost as an evolved entity -- which I find just flat out irresponsible.