The Sen Times

An AI lab says chatbots have what may be a key feature of consciousness. Are they right? And what now?

July 14, 2026 (Conversation) When you interact with a large language model (LLM) one of the systems behind chatbots such as ChatGPT and Claude it can feel as though you are in contact with another conscious mind. But are you, really? Some prominent scientists, such as Geoff Hinton and Richard Dawkins, claim you are. But most experts remain sceptical, arguing that the impressive cognitive capacities of LLMs occur in the absence of consciousness. Last week researchers at Anthropic, the company behind Claude, waded into this debate with an interesting finding. They claim Claude has a normally invisible set