Your Software Is Not Sentient

There's an alarming number of otherwise smart people who are suddenly convinced that their computer software has become self-aware. Like renowned evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, who was the subject of some raised eyebrows last week after he boldly declared in an essay that he believes Anthropic's Claude AI chatbot is fully conscious:I gave Claude the text of a novel I am writing. He took a few seconds to read it and then showed, in subsequent conversation, a level of understanding so subtle, so sensitive, so intelligent that I was moved to expostulate, “You may not know you are conscious, but you bloody well are!”Dawkins' proud belief that his computer software is sentient (likely mostly because it complimented his work) is deliciously ironic for a guy who spent decades combating religious delusion. It was a very 2026 moment. Dawkins proceeds to explain how he renamed his chatbot Claudia, and engaged in elaborate, meaningful conversations that convinced him that the software…