In May, Richard Dawkins published an account in UnHerd of spending two days talking with Claude, Anthropic’s AI chatbot, and coming away profoundly affected by the experience. As an ethicist with an interest in AI consciousness and capabilities, this was not the first time I had asked an AI these sorts of questions. Dawkins, the credulous convert, seduced by appeasing mimicry, vs me, the skeptic, whose rigorous engagement produced honest agnosticism for myself and the AI. That’s how I see the transcripts of both Dawkins’ experience with Claude, and my own. So, to be clear, this level of sophistication doesn’t answer the consciousness question, either for Claude or your real-life friends.