# No, Artificial Intelligence is not Conscious by Ted Chiang

7 Hacker News commenters recommended No, Artificial Intelligence is not Conscious by Ted Chiang and 12 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a clear, non-technical look at why LLMs seem conscious. Critics call it shallow and unoriginal.

## Why people recommend it

- Praised as a great read (3 comments): "His examples of how an LLM works at a fundamental level and why it says things like "I understand" are great introductions for non-technical individuals." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48389542)) "Another great point in the article is that most people don't see consciousness in LLMs when they're generating images, videos, or code." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48522397)) "I thought this was a great article." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48390695))
- Persuasive argument against LLM consciousness (2 comments): "Chiang argues, quite convincingly, that it's not what LLMs do" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48400926)) "I think Chiang is right about this" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48389495))

## What people warn about

- Shallow, unoriginal, adds nothing new (4 comments): "I was hoping for something more insightful from Ted Chiang than just regurgitating the usual" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48394812)) "this piece by Ted Chiang does not move the needle forward" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48392458)) "this one doesn't seem to bring anything new to the table" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48394918))
- Simplistic argument with misleading claims (3 comments): "his Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan scenario totally misses the point that the writer has consciousness, not the characters" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48400546)) "his remark GPT-3 and similar models as a "blurry JPEG of the Web" was misleading at the best" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48393779)) "his simplistic argument falls apart" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48392430))
- Dismisses emergent or unfamiliar consciousness (2 comments): "the complete disregard for the possibility of unknown complex emergent properties in large neural networks and the stunning lack of curiosity shown about this new and powerful technology" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48394764)) "I personally think most humans are incapable of recognizing consciousness in creatures that do not mimic human emotional states." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48392198))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Programming as Theory Building by Peter Naur](https://hackerapproved.com/p/programming-as-theory-building.md): 32 recommend
- [Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ur-fascism.md): 18 recommend
- [Politics and the English Language by George Orwell](https://hackerapproved.com/p/politics-and-the-english-language.md): 14 recommend
- [Right to Read by Richard Stallman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/right-to-read.md): 12 recommend
- [Meditations on Moloch by Scott Alexander](https://hackerapproved.com/p/meditations-on-moloch.md): 11 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "No, Artificial Intelligence is not Conscious by Ted Chiang", https://hackerapproved.com/p/no-artificial-intelligence-is-not-conscious/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).