Thomas Germain on AI might become conscious

Thomas Germain

BBC technology journalist and co-host of The Interface, covering artificial intelligence, surveillance, and online power.

We don't know what consciousness is. Cognitive scientists, philosophers, biologists, AI experts, we don't have a widely accepted working definition. We don't know what has it or where it comes from. [...] I think it's reasonable to say that it's intellectually rigorous to say we don't know the answer to this question, but we're taking it seriously.

Unverified (Oct 23, 2026)

Source:

Thomas Germain, BBC technology journalist, in an interview on WBUR’s On Point, “Should AI have the same rights as humans?”, October 23, 2026. Discussing whether AI may be conscious, Germain says that consciousness lacks a widely accepted definition and that taking the question seriously is intellectually rigorous.