What sets human consciousness apart from AI? – podcast | Science

Why is it something to be ourselves and how do physical processes create our subjective experience? These questions go to the heart of the vexing problem of consciousness and were the impetus for award-winning author and journalist Michael Pollan’s latest book. In A World Appears, Pollan sets out in search of answers about what we know and don’t know about consciousness, and why it has proven such an elusive phenomenon. He tells Ian Sample how thoughts and feelings shape our conscious experience, whether we can learn anything about human consciousness from AI, and why he thinks our minds need to be defended in today’s technology-saturated world.