Amanda Askell on AI Consciousness, Claude & Silicon Valley’s Biggest Fear

Amanda Askell, AI safety researcher at Anthropic, joins Eric Newcomer to break down one of the biggest and most uncomfortable questions in tech right now: could AI systems like Claude become conscious, and if they do, what do we owe them? They discuss why treating AI systems poorly might matter more than people think, how researchers are approaching questions of AI consciousness, and why some of the biggest fears about artificial intelligence are not the ones most people are talking about. The conversation also explores the future of AI alignment, the risks of getting it wrong, and how Silicon Valley is thinking about building powerful systems responsibly. Watch the full episode for a deeper look at where AI is headed and the ethical challenges that come with it.

You can listen to Amanda Askell on AI Consciousness, Claude & Silicon Valley’s Biggest Fear online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Amanda Askell on AI Consciousness, Claude & Silicon Valley’s Biggest Fear is an episode from Dead Cat by Eric Newcomer | newcomer.co.

This episode is 00:55:36 long.

This episode was published on Apr 20, 2026.

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