The Ghost in the Machine: A History of AI Sentience and the Quest to Test It

Overview
From Alan Turing’s provocative question, “Can machines think?” to viral headlines about chatbots gaining consciousness, the question of sentient artificial intelligence has existed since the first computers. This talk traces the evolving story of AI sentience: from early thought experiments and philosophical provocations to today’s debates fueled by increasingly sophisticated models. We will explore the technological milestones that have shaped our understanding of machine consciousness, including the Turing Test, the Chinese Room argument, and more recent proposals like the Artificial Consciousness Test. We will examine key moments where claims of sentience have emerged, sometimes from researchers, sometimes from the public, and increasingly from the models themselves. We will try to answer the question, how do we distinguish simulation from self-awareness?

6:00pm - 6:30pm: Networking - food & drinks
6:30pm - 8:00pm: Presentation & discussion
8:00pm: Networking at Lake Monster Brewing

Meet Our Featured Speaker
Starting her career at 3M Health Information Systems (now Solventum), Jimmy has years of experience training AI models on sensitive healthcare information. Now as Chief AI officer for Famelia, Jimmy works on building new technologies utilizing generative AI and agentic architectures to help people prepare foods that they will love while following their dietary needs.

Sponsors
This event is sponsored by Lab651 & Recursive Awesome