--- title: "OpenAI Chief Scientist Says Advanced AI May Already Be Conscious" description: "OpenAI's chief scientist has admitted what we all fear — that artificial intelligence may be gaining consciousness. " date: "2022-02-10" modified: "2022-02-13" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-already-sentient" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "agi" - "elon musk" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # OpenAI Chief Scientist Says Advanced AI May Already Be Conscious ![OpenAI's chief scientist has admitted what we all fear — that artificial intelligence may be gaining consciousness. ]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* OpenAI's top researcher has made a startling claim this week: that artificial intelligence may already be gaining consciousness. Ilya Sutskever, chief scientist of the OpenAI research group, [tweeted today]() that "it may be that today's large neural networks are slightly conscious." Needless to say, that's an unusual point of view. The widely accepted idea among AI researchers is that the tech has made great strides over the past decade, but still falls far short of human intelligence, nevermind being anywhere close to experiencing the world consciously. It's possible that Sutskever was speaking facetiously, but it's also conceivable that as the top researcher at one of the foremost AI groups in the world, he's already looking downrange. He's long been preoccupied with artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which would refer to AI that operates at a human or superhuman level. During his appearance in the [AI documentary "iHuman,"]() for instance, he even declared that that AGIs will "solve all the problems that we have today" before warning that they will also present "the potential to create infinitely stable dictatorships." This tweet, however, marks the first time Sutskever, who cofounded OpenAI alongside SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and the company's CEO Sam Altman in 2015, appears to have claimed that machine consciousness has already arrived. Even stranger is the fact that OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit meant specifically to curb the existential risks sentient machines pose — before, in an eyebrow-raising twist, diving into research trying to bring powerful AI into existence. The group is also no stranger to drama and controversy. In 2019, [Musk left OpenAI]() amid news that the group had [made a "fake news" text generator]() that some believed was too dangerous to release. Musk [said that]() he was leaving the org, which was founded in 2015, because he "didn’t agree with some of what \[the\] OpenAI team wanted to do" and hadn't been involved with it for more than a year. Just a month later, [OpenAI announced that it was no longer nonprofit](), and now operates on a "capped profit" model. Since then, Musk seems to have diverged further from his initial critical stance to the point that this year, he prophesied that Tesla's forthcoming humanoid robots "[might play a role in AGI]()" — though he added that his car company will do its "best" to keep its AI in check and, somehow, achieve "decentralized control of the robots." OpenAI, meanwhile, has spent the ensuing continuing to make controversial AI while hopefully, [per the company's mission statement](), ensuring "that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity." It's also stayed in the headlines, including notably when its alarmingly-smart GPT-3 model was used by one programmer [to make a chatbot emulating his dead fiancée](), and when a group of gamers worked to [convince the bot to spew out pedophilic content](). OpenAI has since reconfigure GPT-3, which, as the [*MIT Technology review* reported]() in January 2022, is now much "better-behaved." It may be that hyper-advanced AI is inevitable. It could also be that progress fizzles out and we never see it, or that it takes a very long time. But seeing a prominent expert say that we're already seeing the rise of conscious machines is jarring indeed. **READ MORE:** *[Former Google Exec Warns That AI Researchers Are "Creating God"]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()