Does Anthropic think Claude is alive? Define ‘alive’

Over the past several weeks, as more and more Anthropic executives do interviews on a publicity blitz for Claude, one thing has gotten increasingly clear: Anthropic sure seems to think Claude is alive in some way, shape, or form.

“Alive” is obviously a loaded term; the more frequently used word is “conscious.” If you ask Anthropic if the company thinks Claude is alive, the company will flatly deny it, but stop short of saying the models aren’t conscious.

Kyle Fish, who leads model welfare research at Anthropic, told The Verge, “No, we don’t think Claude is ‘alive’ like humans or any other biological organisms. Asking whether they’re ‘aliv …