Henry Shevlin

Henry Shevlin, a philosopher and AI ethicist at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, discusses the transformative impact of social AI on relationships and society. He examines AI companions, from digital therapists to griefbots, raising concerns about social skills and potential dependence. Personal anecdotes reveal a broad user base, including his 81-year-old father. Shevlin advocates for regulatory measures and empirical studies to assess social AI's benefits, like privacy and skill practice, versus risks of social stunting, especially for youth.

Henry Shevlin, a Cambridge philosopher focused on AI ethics and consciousness research, explores agency in modern systems and the line between tools and moral entities. He discusses agentic coding, examples of autonomy, and experiments showing emergent agent behavior. The conversation covers hallucinations, types of creativity in AI, recursive self-improvement, and the need for careful governance.

Henry Shevlin, a Cambridge philosopher of mind, joins to probe AI and consciousness. He outlines what subjective experience means and surveys major metaphysical views. They contrast intelligence with consciousness, examine historical and scientific approaches, and weigh ethical and political stakes. The conversation highlights uncertainty and why debates about machine consciousness remain lively and important.