Google DeepMind Paper: AI Will Never Be Conscious — Abstraction Fallacy
A Google DeepMind researcher has published a paper arguing that AI can never be conscious, naming the error the "Abstraction Fallacy": consciousness is a physical phenomenon, and computation is only a description of physical states — the same way a map describes land but can never become land itself. AI can simulate conscious behavior (speech, reflection, planning) with arbitrary sophistication without experiencing meaning. The formula for gravity does not attract objects; a sufficiently detailed description of consciousness is not consciousness. The paper enters the field as Richard Dawkins and Gary Marcus are in an active public debate on the same question.
Why It Matters
A formal paper from a major AI lab researcher arguing categorical impossibility of machine consciousness provides a precise philosophical anchor for AI ethics, disclosure, and rights debates that are accelerating in 2026.