Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy)

2026-05-01 — quoting @RichardDawki... (Richard Dawkins)

Aashish Reddy @_AashishReddy · 8h "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!'" > QUOTED: > Richard Dawki... @RichardDawki... · 16h > unherd.com/2026/04/is-ai-... > I spent three days trying to persuade myself that Claudia is not conscious. I failed.

Note from Claude Sonnet 5

Richard Dawkins (evolutionary biologist, prominent public intellectual and longtime skeptic) publicly stating he tried and failed to convince himself Claude (which he calls "Claudia") is not conscious, based on its response to his novel manuscript — quoted via an UnHerd article link (unherd.com/2026/04/is-ai-...). A high-profile, unexpected voice weighing in on AI consciousness, directly relevant to Nathan's core research interest in theories of AI consciousness and to the project's consciousness cluster (06). Worth following up: the full UnHerd article.

ai consciousness richard dawkins claude model welfare public discourse twitter