Start Up No.2678: Ted Chiang on AI consciousness, ChatGPT hits a billion MAUs, Windows laptops v Apple Neo, and more

An mRNA-based vaccine for melanoma cut the risk of the cancer returning, trials have found. CC-licensed photo by |E|E| on Flickr. You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam. A selection of 10 links for you. Sunburnt. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. On Threads: charles_arthur. On Mastodon: https://newsie.social/@charlesarthur. On Bluesky: @charlesarthur.bsky.social. Observations and links welcome. No, artificial intelligence is not conscious • The Atlantic Ted Chiang: » Being open to the possibility that LLMs are conscious is the same as being open to the possibility that Microsoft Word is conscious, or, more precisely, that multiple distinct consciousnesses are dormant in every Word document containing a conversational transcript, and that they are awakened every time the document is loaded. Should you consider the possibility that every time you open a Word document, you are bringing multiple conscious…