[demosthanos]

The same reasoning that would call this consideration of the possibility of machine consciousness "dehumanizing" would necessarily also apply to the consciousness of animals, and I can't agree with that. To argue this is to define "human" in terms of exclusive ownership of conscious experience, which is a very fragile definition of humanity.

That definition of humanity cannot countenance the possibility of a conscious alien species. That definition cannot countenance the possibility that elephants or octopuses or parrots or dogs are conscious. A definition of what it means to be human that denies these things a priori simply will not stand the test of time.

That's not to say that these things are conscious, and importantly Anthropic doesn't claim that they are! But just as ethical animal research must consider the possibility that animals are conscious, I don't see why ethical AI research shouldn't do the same for AI. The answer could well be "no", and most likely is at this stage, but someone should at least be asking the question!