Will AI be conscious in the future? Here's what a philosopher and a neuroscientist think

A study published in March 2025 by the University of California, San Diego’s Department of Cognitive Science tested whether humans could distinguish AI from humans in conversation. Researchers found that OpenAI’s GPT-4.5, programmed to adopt a human-like persona, was identified as human 73% of the time, while Meta’s Llama 3 was mistaken for human 56% of the time. This marked the first time large language models passed the Turing Test, originally proposed in 1950 to evaluate machine intelligence. David Chalmers, a philosophy professor at New York University, argues that while current AI lacks consciousness, its rapid development could lead to conscious machines within a decade. He notes that AI already exhibits advanced conversational abilities, a key trait of human intelligence, and questions why future iterations couldn’t achieve consciousness. However, Chalmers admits detecting consciousness—even in humans—remains scientifically challenging. Anil Seth, a professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex, remains skeptical. He attributes the perception of AI consciousness to anthropomorphism, where humans project human-like qualities onto non-human entities, such as seeing faces in clouds or assuming emotions in cars. Seth points out that AI like Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold, despite its complexity, operates on fundamentally different principles than human cognition. The debate highlights the blurred line between machine intelligence and true consciousness. While AI can simulate human-like responses, Seth argues structural differences between biological brains and computational systems make consciousness unlikely. Chalmers, however, leaves open the possibility that future AI advancements could bridge this gap, raising philosophical and scientific questions about the nature of intelligence and self-awareness.