BI 231 Jaan Aru: Conscious AI? Not Even Close!
From Brain Inspired by Paul Middlebrooks
February 11, 2026 · 1h 48m
About this episode
Jaan Aru discusses the connection between biological details of the brain and consciousness in artificial systems.
Support the show to get full episodes, full archive, and join the Discord community. The Transmitter is an online publication that aims to deliver useful information, insights and tools to build bridges across neuroscience and advance research. Visit thetransmitter.org to explore the latest neuroscience news and perspectives, written by journalists and scientists. Read more about our partnership. Sign up for Brain Inspired email alerts to be notified every time a new Brain Inspired episode is released. To explore more neuroscience news and perspectives, visit thetransmitter.org. Jaan Aru is a co-principal investigator of the Natural and Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Tartu in Estonia, where he is an associate professor. Jaan's name has kept popping up on papers I've read over the last few years, sometimes alongside other guests I've had on the podcast, like Matthew Larkum and Mac Shine. With those people and others, he has co-authored papers exploring how some of the pesky biological details of brains might be important for our subjective conscious experience, details like dendritic integration, and loops between the cortex and the thalamus. Turns out a…
People in this episode
Host: Paul Middlebrooks
Guest: Jaan Aru
Topics covered
- consciousness
- artificial intelligence
- neuroscience
- biological details
- cognitive functioning
Keywords
- conscious AI
- neuroscience
- biological details
- cognitive functioning
- artificial systems
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Natural and Artificial Intelligence Lab, University of Tartu, The Transmitter
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