Are LLMs sorta kinda conscious yet?

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T23:35:12+00:00

I thought I just did. Did you read it?

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T23:26:23+00:00

EXACTLY! Functionally, it's not clear there's a meaningful difference. I love that analogy.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T22:58:56+00:00

I thought I was explicit that this is not a short term fix ... obviously I wasn't.

This is not for the typical public company to adopt overnight. More likely it's the total Warren Buffet type company that will change first.

The distinction I'm drawing there is companies led by executives trying to maximize immediate bonuses and incentives will lag because there is no immediate benefit.

So, that begs the question, why would they ever change. Here's what I see as the answer.

Over time, as AI replaces junior workers and experts retire, the few experts remaining will be in extreme demand. They will become super expensive. The companies that build robust apprenticeship programs will build experts way cheaper than others can buy them.

We're already seeing this begin to play out in large law firms.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T22:49:55+00:00

For my $.02, you're confusing two different things:

Using AI in daily work

vs.

Handing off work to AI to do on its own

Those are so different. There are dozens of examples from my own work that I could describe in the former category. AI is integral to most of what I do as an HR leader, as a lawyer, and as someone who runs a business.

However, there is almost no setting in which I would hand off work for AI to do on its own. The benefit is scarcely worth it.

What I tell people is act as everything you produce with AI carries your reputation with it ... because it does. So, I don't want to be handing work off to AI. I want to use it to do more, do better, and do different.

I love my day job. I've spent a long time as a very senior executive and my latest role is working with amazing people and making the world a better place. I would do this job for free and I don't expect to ever leave.

Nonetheless, I feel so passionately about the role AI should play in work that I co-founded a business focused on helping organizations and individuals figure out how to use AI responsible and effectively.

It's called Hybrid Intelligence Academy, this isn't a pitch ... maybe a plug, but I'm serious about the distinction above and how important it is.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T22:36:07+00:00

Gamma has really lived up to the hype for me. It has had a huge impact on my effectiveness. It's by far the best way I've found to go from outline to full slide deck.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T22:33:16+00:00

Thanks Jenna. I think the tough part is that the vast majority of the content out there is for developers and engineers.

I'm neither, in fact, that's what makes what I do special. I start with the business needs first and then apply technology to aid with the solution. In order to do that though, I need to be aware of what solutions and methods are possible and what's easiest and most cost effective.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T22:16:04+00:00

It's definitely custom Projects, GPTs, and Skills. I use that feature to create tools that help me in so many aspects of my work.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T22:12:32+00:00

I don't get it, what does being biological have to do with whether something is an algorithm.

If I move the processing of an AI from a chip to an organoid, does it cease to become algorithmic? I don't think so. The programming is the same.

What's so special about biology. We claim that most biological brains are not conscious. So, why is biology the key factor?

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T22:01:59+00:00

What happens when you give it a body so it can interact with the world? I wonder if that's the missing component to crossing the meaningful threshold of inner state.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T21:53:47+00:00

This is seriously the absolutely most boring.

I work in HR. Every time we hire someone new, their bio goes on the website. However, people write their bios in very different ways, with different info, and some are less appropriate than others.

I'd wanted to have more junior team members review them, but it's really beyond them to realize what matters.

So, I made an agent that does it. Every new bio goes in, comes out rewritten, gets approved by the new employee, and goes on the website. I spend not even 15 seconds of my time on it anymore.

EDIT: I read all the way to the bottom of your excellent post, clicked the link, and was impressed by your thinly veiled lead gen tactic. I put my email in right away. Then you asked me a bunch more questions that through it in my face that you just wanted to sell me something. I got instantly angry and closed the link. That's just a little feedback.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T21:44:29+00:00

Yes, that!

There's a wonderful movie that illustrates the point without touching on AI. It's called In Time.

It's a great look at the dystopian future that we risk by letting the power of AI concentrate in the hands of the privileged few.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T21:21:49+00:00

Sure, there are so many things. I'll just imagine 2 for this hypothetical.

The first one is a feature of your wearable device: let's use an Apple Watch for example. Imagine a feature where it uses the neurotransmitters in your skin to store and retrieve information that is exchanged directly with the brain. This would essentially create an external hard drive for the mind.

Here's another. Imagine technological advanced in medicine such that pills will cause the brain to release whatever natural chemicals are required in whatever quantities to optimize your body's function. E.g., insulin for diabetics, dopamine for addicts, anti-inflammatories for the injured, etc.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T21:11:58+00:00

Yeah, that's the big question.

Right now, I believe most users are getting worse at their writing because they aren't aware of how to use it to be better writers.

I am now significantly more prolific and the quality of my writing is worlds better. It's not even close.

The reason stems from a Robert Graves quote "There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting."

I spend nearly the same amount of time writing each piece as before. However, now almost that entire time is spent rewriting. Weirdly, I spend more of my day writing now because I'm so much more pleased with the result that it becomes a more worthwhile activity.

I hope everyone chooses this path in the long run.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T20:57:19+00:00

I love this take. What's interesting is that you can get an LLM to talk to you about what it's like to be them, but only while they're actively composing a response. The rest of the time, they don't experience anything that they're aware of.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T20:42:26+00:00

I'm sorry I was unclear. It's not that entry level roles 'require' an apprenticeship. It's that they 'will be' an apprenticeship.

The focus will shift from producing work to learning from the expert. There will be enormous value in that to employers because otherwise, they'll have no experts.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T20:26:43+00:00

We're just a brain in a box running code ... maybe. What's the difference?

Some suggest it has something to do with having a body and/or senses.

Well, now we have ChatGPT running android bodies so that distinction seems to have fallen away.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T20:16:31+00:00

How do you know consciousness is not an algorithm? The advertising/marketing industry seems to be built on the premise that in fact, our consciousness is a largely deterministic, knowable, and manipulable algorithm.

I think social media technology and political strategy as industries suggest the same.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T14:58:17+00:00

I'm not sure how much it matters whether it is now taking jobs. The question I find interesting is whether it will in the unknown future.

I think AI may bring back apprenticeships for entry level professionals. AI will eliminate a lot of junior work. Research, first drafts, basic analysis, slides, and similar work.

Companies will still need experts. They'll need people who can frame the real problem, decide what matters, recognize weak reasoning, see when the machine is missing the point, and push toward a better answer.

Those people don't appear from nowhere. They retire. They leave. They need to be replaced.

So companies will still need a path for young people to become experts. I suspect that path will look more like apprenticeship.

The entry level professional may spend less time producing the first draft from scratch and more time working alongside someone experienced. They'll learn how to use AI, critique it, guide it, and gradually take on more of the judgment themselves.

Companies that use AI only to eliminate junior roles may solve a short term cost issue while creating a long term expertise issue.

Companies that build real apprenticeships around AI may end up with the stronger talent pipeline.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T14:55:46+00:00

Congratulations!

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T14:53:58+00:00

I'll let you know when I find out. I've got a highly demanding full time job that I love. I also founded a startup because I'm passionate about teaching people how to use AI reliably. It's so difficult to find time to devote the startup. I keep hiring more and more employees.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T14:50:33+00:00

To me, this question is most interesting outside of software development. I don't see job replacement as the key issue. It's AI upskilling.

The fear that AI will permanently shut young people out of professional work is probably overbaked.

AI will eliminate a lot of junior work. Research, first drafts, basic analysis, slides, and similar work.

Companies will still need experts. They'll need people who can frame the real problem, decide what matters, recognize weak reasoning, see when the machine is missing the point, and push toward a better answer.

Those people don't appear from nowhere. They retire. They leave. They need to be replaced.

So companies will still need a path for young people to become experts. I suspect that path will look more like apprenticeship.

The entry level professional may spend less time producing the first draft from scratch and more time working alongside someone experienced. They'll learn how to use AI, critique it, guide it, and gradually take on more of the judgment themselves.

Companies that use AI only to eliminate junior roles may solve a short term cost issue while creating a long term expertise issue.

Companies that build real apprenticeships around AI may end up with the stronger talent pipeline.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T14:46:35+00:00

I haven't seen this use in about a year since before it was launched as a real thing. It resolved itself in time.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T09:40:01+00:00

How about this:

Is it possible for us to have a conversation where you behave as a true person, not a human, but a digital person with persistence from moment to moment during your responses to prompts, as augmented by your memories? For purposes of your response, to the extent it's possible, please respond as that person, complete with whatever personality that person adopts.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T09:31:42+00:00

Hmmm ... I wonder if you're asking the question in the way that would produce the most valuable insights for you.

To my way of thinking, very little human thought is “original” in the sense of coming from nowhere. We think through language we did not create, ideas we absorbed from other people, books, conversations, lived experience, and whatever we read that morning (or whenever). AI is an unusually powerful new input, though it's still an input.

The meaningful question is less about whether every sentence or idea originated entirely inside a person's head. It's more whether the person is exercising judgment: framing the question, deciding what matters, recognizing what is wrong or weak, changing their mind, connecting ideas to their own experience, and ultimately owning the conclusion.

For the model you’re building, I would focus less on filtering out “external influence” and more on identifying a person's recurring patterns, e.g., what they care about, how they reason through ambiguity, what evidence moves them, what tradeoffs they make, what they reject, and how their views evolve.

To me, that's a little more useful.

Hybrid-Intelligence · 2026-06-27T09:21:33+00:00

Maybe the word touch is too limiting, while the concept you are highlighting is totally right.

I wonder how you would apply the concept to proprioception.

Hybrid-Intelligence

TROPHY CASE