Consciousness, Reasoning and the Philosophy of AI (Shanahan & Fry)
A deep philosophical conversation about AI consciousness, reasoning, anthropomorphism and the nature of intelligence with Murray Shanahan and Hannah Fry.
Consciousness, Reasoning and the Philosophy of AI (Shanahan & Fry)
This episode features a deep conversation between Professor Murray Shanahan and Hannah Fry on the philosophical foundations of artificial intelligence — exploring consciousness, reasoning, and how we talk about AI today.
Shanahan, a cognitive robotics expert and principal scientist at Google DeepMind, addresses questions that have occupied thinkers for centuries: what we mean by consciousness, whether machines can truly reason, and how language shapes our understanding of intelligence itself.
The discussion ranges from symbolic AI and neural networks to the Turing test and anthropomorphism — reminding us that how we frame questions about AI often reveals more about ourselves than about the machines we build.
What humans call “intelligence,” “reason,” or even “understanding” may not map neatly onto what current AI systems do — and that opens a broader conversation about the limits of language, data-driven systems, and ultimately what we mean by a mind.
