Richard Dawkins and the question of AI consciousness | Letters

Salley Vickers and Carrie Eckersley respond to a letter on Richard Dawkins and his chats with AI bots I was delighted to read Dr Simon Nieder’s cogent rebuttal of Richard Dawkins’s attribution of consciousness to the responses engendered by AI ( Letters, 10 May ). That human consciousness appears to have an innate tendency to project itself on to various othernesses has long been understood - John Ruskin termed it the pathetic fallacy - and that children animate their loved toys is readily observable.