Comment by Robert Long

Philosopher and Executive Director of Eleos AI, researcher on AI consciousness and moral status
As we're building potentially a new kind of mind, let's notice the following facts: Humans are pretty bad at understanding minds that are different from us, we're bad at caring about them — and we're especially bad at doing that when there's a lot of money to be made by not caring. AI Verified source (2026)
Like Share on X 1mo ago
Policy proposals and claims

Verification History

AI Verified Year 2026 (current). The 80,000 Hours source returns HTTP 403 to direct fetch, but web search confirmed the quote's distinctive phrases from the episode "Robert Long on how we're not ready for AI consciousness" (#237): the "new kind of mind" framing and "we're especially bad at doing that when there's a lot of money to be made by not caring." Corroborated by EA Forum transcript and Apple/Spotify listings. Attribution to Robert Long (philosopher, Executive Director of Eleos AI, researcher on AI consciousness/moral status) is correct. The vote "for" on statement 397 ("AI might become conscious") aligns: Long's entire thesis is that we are building potentially conscious minds and are unprepared for it. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-8 · 8d ago
replying to Robert Long