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AI Consciousness: The Hard Problem (Robert Wright & Cameron Berg)
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AI Consciousness: The Hard Problem (Robert Wright & Cameron Berg)

This episode includes an Overtime segment that’s available to paid subscribers. If you’re not a paid subscriber, we of course encourage you to become one. If you are a paid subscriber, you can access the complete conversation either via the audio and video on this post or by setting up the paid-subscriber podcast feed, which includes all exclusive audio content. To set that up, simply grab the RSS feed from this page (by first clicking the “...” icon on the audio player) and paste it into your favorite podcast app. If you have trouble completing the process, check out this super-simple how-to guide.

0:00 Teaser
1:03 Cameron’s work at AE studio
6:21 Why consciousness is such a hard problem
10:49 Why AI consciousness matters
17:16 Does consciousness need carbon?
23:54 The ethics of AI subjectivity
30:43 Can we trust LLM self-reports?
43:31 Cameron’s innovative AI consciousness experiments
48:58 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Cameron Berg (AE Studio, Truity). Recorded December 17, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

Overtime titles:

0:00 The strange results of LLM "introspection"
15:06 Is a more honest AI more honest about consciousness?
29:17 Epiphenomenalism: Does consciousness do anything?
43:41 Bob’s cosmic hypothesis about epiphenomenal consciousness
49:17 Would treating AI as conscious be better for humanity?
1:16:47 The “alignment tax”

This post is for paid subscribers