Can AI Become Conscious? — With Michael Pollan
February 25, 2026
55 min
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497 of 537
February 25, 2026
Can AI Become Conscious? — With Michael Pollan
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Episode 497 of 537 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
55:12This episodeCan AI Become Conscious? — With Michael Pollan
Summary
Michael Pollan is the author of A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness. Pollan joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss whether AI can ever become conscious and what that question reveals about the nature of mind. Tune in to hear a nuanced debate about whether consciousness is computable, where today’s LLMs fall short, and how researchers might actually test machine consciousness in the future. We also cover materialism vs. spirituality, the “hard problem” of consciousness, psychedelic experiences, and the emerging science of plant sentience. Hit play for a thoughtful, surprising conversation that brings the AI consciousness debate back down to earth while opening up some of its strangest possibilities.
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