Is AI Conscious? Claude 4 Raises the Question

Host Rachel Feltman talks with Deni Ellis Béchard, Scientific
American’s senior tech reporter, about his recent exchange with
Claude 4, an artificial intelligence chatbot that seemed to suggest
it might be conscious. They unpack what that moment reveals about
the state of AI, why it matters and how technology is shifting.
Recommended reading: Can a Chatbot be Conscious? Inside Anthropic’s
Interpretability Research on Claude 4 New Grok 4 Takes on
‘Humanity’s Last Exam’ as the AI Race Heats Up E-mail us at
sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or
ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every
day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in
Science, our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by
Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper and Jeff DelViscio. This
episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron
Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by
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