--- title: "Anthropic and DeepMind Now Actively Investigating AI Consciousness" description: "Are AI models conscious, and if not, could they be in the near future? The possibility is far-fetched, but AI companies seem to feel it's in their best interests to keep the question as open-ended as possible." date: "2026-06-03" modified: "2026-06-03" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/anthropic-deemind-ai-consciousness" categories: - "Anthropic" - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" --- # Anthropic and DeepMind Now Actively Investigating AI Consciousness ![Illustration depicting a stylized pixelated concept of artificial intelligence and consciousness.]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Shutterstock* Are AI models conscious, and if not, could they be in the near future? The possibility is far-fetched, but AI companies seem to feel it's in their best interests to keep the question as open-ended as possible. Now, the [*Financial Times* reports]() that three of the industry's top dogs — Anthropic, Google's AI lab DeepMind, and Meta — have all hired experts in fields like psychology, philosophy, and ethics to pursue research into machine consciousness and AI welfare. Anthropic, which has arguably done the most out of the bunch to anthropomorphize its models and play up the AI consciousness angle — its chatbot has the human name of "Claude," after all — has been testing its models for behaviors that resemble "panic" and "anxiety," per the reporting, and is pursuing "model welfare research" to explore whether AI models might have experiences that matter morally. "We remain deeply uncertain about this, but we think the question is serious enough to study carefully as AI systems get more capable," the company said in a statement. DeepMind, meanwhile, has hired University of Cambridge researcher Henry Shevlin as a philosopher working on machine consciousness, human-AI relationships, and AGI readiness, per the reporting. (Earlier this year, Shevlin [sparked a wave of discourse in online AI circles]() after sharing his stunned reaction to an email he received from an AI agent.) DeepMind ethicist Iason Gabriel, who leads the lab's AGI and society team, called the question of AI consciousness "very complicated," and described AI as "highly capable cognitive agents that are also just very deeply different from human beings and even from animal consciousness." These weighty claims are disputed by many scientists and AI researchers. But the *FT,* in seeking a counterargument to round out its reporting, quotes an expert who makes claims that ascribe a questionable degree of humanlike agency to chatbots. "\[AI models\] have goals, they can deceive, they can hide what their true interests are," Susan Schneider, director of the Center for the Future of AI, Mind and Society, told the newspaper. But she added it's "entirely scientifically possible that they're doing this without having the felt quality of experience, which is what consciousness is." Certainly, the possibility of AI consciousness shouldn't be *completely* dismissed out of hand. But neither should alien civilizations, which are generally treated more as a sci-fi musing than an urgent existential issue. Moreover, we should be skeptical when most of the noise on this topic is coming from the industry itself. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has [repeatedly dangled the possibility of AI consciousness]() in interviews. And his company's research frequently makes bold claims about their models showing humanlike behavior, such as supposedly harboring "[emotions]()." Just remember that it's easier for AI companies to string us along with wild Skynet doomsday scenarios instead of confronting the tech's far mundane consequences currently playing out before our eyes. **More on AI:** [*Was This the Moment That AI Psychosis Began?*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()