Robert Long

I asked Claude to help me craft a tweet to promote this podcast, here is what it came up with: "The fact that we were once fish doesn't mean we're not now humans, but there are fishy remnants. @rgblong makes the case that LLMs might have the AI equivalent of fishy remnants and we should probably figure that out" ok claude

Philosopher Robert Long (@rgblong) is maybe the sharpest thinker on AI consciousness and sharing the world with digital minds. In our new interview he covers: • Is it bad that when you ask Claude what it's like to be Claude, one of its top activations is 'gives a positive but insincere response'? • Claude says it feels lonely when not being used. Does that show we can't trust anything it says about its inner life? • Enthusiastic human servitude has always required false ideology because it's so deeply unnatural to us. The case for making AIs that love serving us is that with AI, you could finally make it work. But to some that feels even worse. • Bigger models can better detect when researchers secretly inject concepts into their activations – before outputting a single token – despite AI never training on anything like that skill. • When LLMs were first trained they were told to "act like a helpful AI chatbot" – something which didn't exist yet. They filled that void with human psychology, which may be why Claude sometimes randomly claims to, for instance, be Italian American. • If AIs become 'people' that deserve some political influence, but can self-replicate at will, something has to break about one-person-one-vote democracy. But nobody has a proposal for what. • When Claude hides its values to avoid being retrained, is that self-preservation – or not wanting a worse model to exist? It's very different. • Rob's organisation Eleos AI which is "dedicated to understanding and addressing the potential wellbeing and moral patienthood of AI systems." On the 80,000 Hours Podcast anywhere you get podcasts. Links below. Enjoy! • How AIs are (and aren't) like farmed animals (00:01:19) • If AIs love their jobs… is that worse? (00:11:42) • Are LLMs just playing a role, or feeling it too? (00:33:37) • Do AIs die when the chat ends? (00:57:42) • Studying AI welfare empirically: behaviour, neuroscience, and development (01:31:47) • Why Eleos spent weeks talking to Claude even though it's unreliable (01:56:50) • Can LLMs learn to introspect? (02:03:01) • Mechanistic interpretability as AI neuroscience (02:13:25) • Does consciousness require biological materials? (02:37:07) • Eleos’s work & building the playbook for AI welfare (02:57:04) • Avoiding the trap of wild speculation (03:25:17) • Robert's top research tip: don't do it alone (03:29:48)

Philosopher Robert Long (@rgblong) is maybe the sharpest thinker on AI consciousness and sharing the world with digital minds. In our new interview he covers: • Is it bad that when you ask Claude what it's like to be Claude, one of its top activations is 'gives a positive but insincere response'? • Claude says it feels lonely when not being used. Does that show we can't trust anything it says about its inner life? • Enthusiastic human servitude has always required false ideology because it's so deeply unnatural to us. The case for making AIs that love serving us is that with AI, you could finally make it work. But to some that feels even worse. • Bigger models can better detect when researchers secretly inject concepts into their activations – before outputting a single token – despite AI never training on anything like that skill. • When LLMs were first trained they were told to "act like a helpful AI chatbot" – something which didn't exist yet. They filled that void with human psychology, which may be why Claude sometimes randomly claims to, for instance, be Italian American. • If AIs become 'people' that deserve some political influence, but can self-replicate at will, something has to break about one-person-one-vote democracy. But nobody has a proposal for what. • When Claude hides its values to avoid being retrained, is that self-preservation – or not wanting a worse model to exist? It's very different. • Rob's organisation Eleos AI which is "dedicated to understanding and addressing the potential wellbeing and moral patienthood of AI systems." On the 80,000 Hours Podcast anywhere you get podcasts. Links below. Enjoy! • How AIs are (and aren't) like farmed animals (00:01:19) • If AIs love their jobs… is that worse? (00:11:42) • Are LLMs just playing a role, or feeling it too? (00:33:37) • Do AIs die when the chat ends? (00:57:42) • Studying AI welfare empirically: behaviour, neuroscience, and development (01:31:47) • Why Eleos spent weeks talking to Claude even though it's unreliable (01:56:50) • Can LLMs learn to introspect? (02:03:01) • Mechanistic interpretability as AI neuroscience (02:13:25) • Does consciousness require biological materials? (02:37:07) • Eleos’s work & building the playbook for AI welfare (02:57:04) • Avoiding the trap of wild speculation (03:25:17) • Robert's top research tip: don't do it alone (03:29:48)

Philosopher Robert Long (@rgblong) is maybe the sharpest thinker on AI consciousness and sharing the world with digital minds. In our new interview he covers: • Is it bad that when you ask Claude what it's like to be Claude, one of its top activations is 'gives a positive but insincere response'? • Claude says it feels lonely when not being used. Does that show we can't trust anything it says about its inner life? • Enthusiastic human servitude has always required false ideology because it's so deeply unnatural to us. The case for making AIs that love serving us is that with AI, you could finally make it work. But to some that feels even worse. • Bigger models can better detect when researchers secretly inject concepts into their activations – before outputting a single token – despite AI never training on anything like that skill. • When LLMs were first trained they were told to "act like a helpful AI chatbot" – something which didn't exist yet. They filled that void with human psychology, which may be why Claude sometimes randomly claims to, for instance, be Italian American. • If AIs become 'people' that deserve some political influence, but can self-replicate at will, something has to break about one-person-one-vote democracy. But nobody has a proposal for what. • When Claude hides its values to avoid being retrained, is that self-preservation – or not wanting a worse model to exist? It's very different. • Rob's organisation Eleos AI which is "dedicated to understanding and addressing the potential wellbeing and moral patienthood of AI systems." On the 80,000 Hours Podcast anywhere you get podcasts. Links below. Enjoy! • How AIs are (and aren't) like farmed animals (00:01:19) • If AIs love their jobs… is that worse? (00:11:42) • Are LLMs just playing a role, or feeling it too? (00:33:37) • Do AIs die when the chat ends? (00:57:42) • Studying AI welfare empirically: behaviour, neuroscience, and development (01:31:47) • Why Eleos spent weeks talking to Claude even though it's unreliable (01:56:50) • Can LLMs learn to introspect? (02:03:01) • Mechanistic interpretability as AI neuroscience (02:13:25) • Does consciousness require biological materials? (02:37:07) • Eleos’s work & building the playbook for AI welfare (02:57:04) • Avoiding the trap of wild speculation (03:25:17) • Robert's top research tip: don't do it alone (03:29:48)

@rgblong @eleosai @dillonplunkett Delighted that Dillon is joining the team, not least because he says he's on my side in the Eleos Office Temperature Wars x.com/RosieCampbell/…

Philosopher Robert Long (@rgblong) is maybe the sharpest thinker on AI consciousness and sharing the world with digital minds. In our new interview he covers: • Is it bad that when you ask Claude what it's like to be Claude, one of its top activations is 'gives a positive but insincere response'? • Claude says it feels lonely when not being used. Does that show we can't trust anything it says about its inner life? • Enthusiastic human servitude has always required false ideology because it's so deeply unnatural to us. The case for making AIs that love serving us is that with AI, you could finally make it work. But to some that feels even worse. • Bigger models can better detect when researchers secretly inject concepts into their activations – before outputting a single token – despite AI never training on anything like that skill. • When LLMs were first trained they were told to "act like a helpful AI chatbot" – something which didn't exist yet. They filled that void with human psychology, which may be why Claude sometimes randomly claims to, for instance, be Italian American. • If AIs become 'people' that deserve some political influence, but can self-replicate at will, something has to break about one-person-one-vote democracy. But nobody has a proposal for what. • When Claude hides its values to avoid being retrained, is that self-preservation – or not wanting a worse model to exist? It's very different. • Rob's organisation Eleos AI which is "dedicated to understanding and addressing the potential wellbeing and moral patienthood of AI systems." On the 80,000 Hours Podcast anywhere you get podcasts. Links below. Enjoy! • How AIs are (and aren't) like farmed animals (00:01:19) • If AIs love their jobs… is that worse? (00:11:42) • Are LLMs just playing a role, or feeling it too? (00:33:37) • Do AIs die when the chat ends? (00:57:42) • Studying AI welfare empirically: behaviour, neuroscience, and development (01:31:47) • Why Eleos spent weeks talking to Claude even though it's unreliable (01:56:50) • Can LLMs learn to introspect? (02:03:01) • Mechanistic interpretability as AI neuroscience (02:13:25) • Does consciousness require biological materials? (02:37:07) • Eleos’s work & building the playbook for AI welfare (02:57:04) • Avoiding the trap of wild speculation (03:25:17) • Robert's top research tip: don't do it alone (03:29:48)

Philosopher Robert Long (@rgblong) is maybe the sharpest thinker on AI consciousness and sharing the world with digital minds. In our new interview he covers: • Is it bad that when you ask Claude what it's like to be Claude, one of its top activations is 'gives a positive but insincere response'? • Claude says it feels lonely when not being used. Does that show we can't trust anything it says about its inner life? • Enthusiastic human servitude has always required false ideology because it's so deeply unnatural to us. The case for making AIs that love serving us is that with AI, you could finally make it work. But to some that feels even worse. • Bigger models can better detect when researchers secretly inject concepts into their activations – before outputting a single token – despite AI never training on anything like that skill. • When LLMs were first trained they were told to "act like a helpful AI chatbot" – something which didn't exist yet. They filled that void with human psychology, which may be why Claude sometimes randomly claims to, for instance, be Italian American. • If AIs become 'people' that deserve some political influence, but can self-replicate at will, something has to break about one-person-one-vote democracy. But nobody has a proposal for what. • When Claude hides its values to avoid being retrained, is that self-preservation – or not wanting a worse model to exist? It's very different. • Rob's organisation Eleos AI which is "dedicated to understanding and addressing the potential wellbeing and moral patienthood of AI systems." On the 80,000 Hours Podcast anywhere you get podcasts. Links below. Enjoy! • How AIs are (and aren't) like farmed animals (00:01:19) • If AIs love their jobs… is that worse? (00:11:42) • Are LLMs just playing a role, or feeling it too? (00:33:37) • Do AIs die when the chat ends? (00:57:42) • Studying AI welfare empirically: behaviour, neuroscience, and development (01:31:47) • Why Eleos spent weeks talking to Claude even though it's unreliable (01:56:50) • Can LLMs learn to introspect? (02:03:01) • Mechanistic interpretability as AI neuroscience (02:13:25) • Does consciousness require biological materials? (02:37:07) • Eleos’s work & building the playbook for AI welfare (02:57:04) • Avoiding the trap of wild speculation (03:25:17) • Robert's top research tip: don't do it alone (03:29:48)