Comment by Demis Hassabis

Scott Pelley: But is self-awareness a goal of yours? Demis Hassabis: Not explicitly. But it may happen implicitly. These systems might acquire some feeling of self-awareness. That is possible. I think it's important for these systems to understand you, self and other. And that's probably the beginning of something like self-awareness. But, he says, if a machine becomes self-aware, we may not recognize it. Demis Hassabis: I think there's two reasons we regard each other as conscious. One is that you're exhibiting the behavior of a conscious being very similar to my behavior. But the second thing is you're running on the same substrate. We're made of the same carbon matter with our squishy brains. Now obviously with machines, they're running on silicon. So even if they exhibit the same behaviors, and even if they say the same things, it doesn't necessarily mean that this sensation of consciousness that we have is the same thing they will have. Unverified source (2025)