Twenty years building technology. A decade reverse-engineering the human mind. One question that decides how we treat the machines we are building.
"From computer science to the reverse engineering of the conscious mind, this book presents a mind-blowing theory."
A preregistered study of what language models say about their own experience, under journal review.
See the papers →Independent, evidence-first advice on machine consciousness claims.
How I can help →What Makes Us Conscious, and Why AI Isn't (Yet)
To know whether a machine could ever be sentient, we first have to understand our own sentience. The book follows a decade of research into how the human mind produces consciousness, explains how today's chatbots actually work, and sets out a real test for each state of consciousness. Today's AI fails all three.
"From computer science to the reverse engineering of the conscious mind, this book presents a mind-blowing theory. [It] offers a unifying perspective that reshapes our understanding of the mind, thoughts, mental disorders and the future of Artificial General Intelligence. The movie I, Robot could have been inspired by it."
Sealed plans, open data, open code.
Self-reports of consciousness in two open-weights language models follow their builders' choices. A model's words cannot count as evidence of a mind, in either direction.
How the speed of the inner voice shapes how fast time feels, with a proposed study.
Some people see vivid pictures with their eyes closed. Some see nothing at all. Find out where you are. Nothing is stored.
Twenty quick questions, about five minutes, and your place on the map of minds.
Map Your MindTake a few breaths. Then open your eyes and choose what you saw.
Do you see images? Aphantasia.
Do you hear yourself think? Anauralia.
New tests as the research grows.
Independent, evidence-first advice on machine consciousness, from the researcher behind a preregistered study of AI self-reports.
Designing AI on a human-inspired architecture of mind: what it would take for a machine to have the structure of consciousness, and how to build toward it responsibly.
How people read your model, and how your model should talk about itself. Fewer anthropomorphism traps, more honest self-descriptions, better-earned trust.
Policies grounded in what the evidence can and cannot show: model welfare rules, usage policies, and how you talk to the public about AI minds.
Independent review of welfare and consciousness claims, and test designs that do not rely on the model's own words.
Twenty years in technology, including Director of Innovation at HP, and a decade studying how the human mind produces consciousness.
My preregistered study showed that a few lines of instruction move a model's claims of inner experience from zero to over half of its answers. It is under review at Minds and Machines.
Author of the forthcoming book Solve for Human: What Makes Us Conscious, and Why AI Isn't (Yet).
Advisory calls · project and policy reviews · workshops and talks for your team.
Aeongenics is the research and consulting practice of Erez Aeon Batat.
doi@batat.com
I have spent my life on two kinds of architecture: software and the mind.
I started in tech at 19, earned a computer science degree in New York, and became Director of Innovation for HP's printing division. In 2012 a panic attack made me quit, and left me with a question I couldn't put down: what is the mechanism of the mind?
For the next decade I studied it the way an engineer studies unfamiliar software, by watching how it behaves. I interviewed hundreds of people about what happens inside their heads, and found that I have no mental imagery myself. That work became a new theory of consciousness, and my book.
Agents, editors, researchers and companies:
doi@batat.com