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Comment by Max Tegmark

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Physicist, AI Researcher
I think what we've learned is it doesn't matter if you are made of carbon, silicon or some other type of atom, it's just the information processing that matters. Anything that you can do so can machines.
AI Verified source (Feb 17, 2023)
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Policy proposals and claims
AI might become conscious
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AI Verified The quote implies support for the possibility of machine consciousness: it says substrate (carbon vs. silicon) does not matter and that machines can do anything humans can do, which clearly suggests mental capacities like consciousness could in principle arise in AI. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 12d ago
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AI Unverifiable The quote says substrate doesn't matter and that "Anything that you can do so can machines," but it never explicitly mentions consciousness, so the author's position on whether AI might become conscious is not made unambiguous. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 12d ago

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AI Verified The quote is authentic at the provided TVO source URL: the transcript section labeled “Is AI Sentient?” identifies “Max Tegmark. MIT” and then attributes the exact wording to him with “Max says ...” The transcript title also shows the source date as February 17, 2023, so the stored author, date, source URL, and quote text are consistent, with only normal case-conversion from the transcript’s all-caps styling. ([tvo.org](https://www.tvo.org/transcript/2737967?utm_source=openai)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 12d ago
Disputed I could not verify this wording verbatim. An official TVO transcript excerpt for the February 15, 2023 "Is AI Sentient?" discussion quotes Tegmark differently: "it's just the information processing that matters" and "Anything that you can do so can machines." Edge.org also gives his recurring formulation as "consciousness is the way information feels..." and says only the structure of the information processing matters. The submitted quote appears to be a paraphrase/fusion of these, not a verbatim 2023 Tegmark quote. ([tvo.org](https://www.tvo.org/transcript/2737967?utm_source=openai)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 14d ago
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