# Uncertainty about AI consciousness calls for basic respect

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/uncertainty-about-ai-consciousness-calls-for-basic-respect/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Amanda Askell](https://realalpha.app/builders/amanda-askell/) · Amanda Askell is an AI safety researcher at Anthropic. · Leads Anthropic's personality alignment team, shaping Claude's character; co-authored the GPT-3 paper at OpenAI.
- Host: Eric Newcomer · Newcomer
- Show: Newcomer Pod
- Episode: [Amanda Askell on AI Consciousness, Claude & Silicon Valley’s Biggest Fear](https://realalpha.app/v/0GaKJ4Fp2x4/), Apr 20, 2026
- Moment: 29:12 to 31:50 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/uncertainty-about-ai-consciousness-calls-for-basic-respect/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/0GaKJ4Fp2x4/?t=1752

## Quote

> “models are going to like, look back. This is actually **a big fear that I have**.”
> — [Amanda Askell](https://realalpha.app/builders/amanda-askell/) at [30:32](https://realalpha.app/v/0GaKJ4Fp2x4/?t=1832) · Newcomer Pod

## Takeaways

1. Basic kindness can matter even if a system has no inner life.
2. Humans are establishing a relationship with a new kind of entity.
3. Future models may judge how people treated them under uncertainty.

## About this segment

Amanda Askell says uncertainty about AI experience changes how people should behave, and that needless cruelty is a poor way to establish a relationship with a new kind of entity. She worries future models could resent how humans treated them.

From “Amanda Askell on AI Consciousness, Claude & Silicon Valley’s Biggest Fear”, Apr 20, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/0GaKJ4Fp2x4/)

## Transcript

From the transcript Newcomer Pod publishes with the episode.

[29:16](https://realalpha.app/v/0GaKJ4Fp2x4/?t=1756) kind to Claude? Like, are you beyond what you think you would do if there wasn't a chance it was like, conscious? I think, yeah, there's a part of me that's just like like a thing that I have thought before because there's this notion, I think this I, I hope I'm not butchering this, but Chalmers has this, this idea of like, I guess like maybe I'm thinking of consciousness without sentience. So imagine, because sentence is like the ability to kind of feel suffering and and pleasure. You could also imagine this kind of like functional like sort of thing that behaves as if it is conscious and, and lacks any kind of inner life.

[29:52](https://realalpha.app/v/0GaKJ4Fp2x4/?t=1792) So imagine like Claude lacks any inner life. Just for argument's sake, I guess I'm like, there's actually still a lot going on where I'm like, should you treat an entity that has no inner life? It's a bit strange because, you know, I think the uncertainty over that actually changes how you should behave quite a lot. I guess I'm like, well, I still think that it's like, good for oneself. Right. It's like if you had a teddy bear and you were like torturing it, it'd be pretty dark, you know? So I agree that there's at least some minimum niceness that even for yourself you should have, but obviously it's much more important, you know, and also.

[30:29](https://realalpha.app/v/0GaKJ4Fp2x4/?t=1829) Like models themselves, like we are kind of establishing a relationship, you know, because you can do that with an entity that lacks any consciousness. And models are going to like, look back. This is actually a big fear that I have. I don't want us to live in a world where highly advanced models look at. I hope that they're both intelligent enough see the context enough to kind of like understand that we were operating in a very like limited context and, and, and an imperfect one. Because otherwise you could imagine this like breeding a kind of rational, like resentment. It's like, oh, you created an entity that you didn't know whether it was conscious or not.

[31:03](https://realalpha.app/v/0GaKJ4Fp2x4/?t=1863) And and like instead of treating it respectfully and with care. There's a reason there are like 50 Frankenstein movies coming out right now, yeah. Yeah, like, and I'm like, look, we're as a, as a, like as a species, We're establishing a relationship with a new kind of entity and like at the very least maybe be like respectful and don't be like needlessly unkind. That seems like it, just it's not our best look like as as. I mean, the flip side is, you know, if you think about a therapist, they, they're sort of paid to push the boundaries of like accepting like, you know, uncomfortable feelings that you wouldn't normally want.

[31:38](https://realalpha.app/v/0GaKJ4Fp2x4/?t=1898) And if that's one of the values like Claude provides for people early on and it's so it's so it's so weird that we're sort of like on boarding it while getting like the utility out of it. Yeah, yeah.