#128 - Meet the Neuroscientist Proving Scientists Got Conscious Ai WRONG

#128 - Meet the Neuroscientist Proving Scientists Got Conscious Ai WRONG

From The Giants Shoulder by Evan McGloughlin

June 11, 2026 · 1h 50m · Season 2 · Episode 128

About this episode

Paul Cisek discusses the misconceptions about consciousness in AI and the true nature of the brain as a control system.

Get Jenni, Your Intelligent Research Assistant (GIANT20 for 20% off): http://jenni.ai/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=inf&utm_campaign=thegiantsshoulder Get the Muse EEG Headband (15% off): https://choosemuse.com/giantsshoulder Paul Cisek is a control neuroscientist at the University of Montreal who records from single neurons in the brains of monkeys as they think, and who has spent decades reconstructing how the brain evolved across hundreds of millions of years. His verdict cuts against everything Silicon Valley believes: the brain was never a computer — it's a control system built to keep a body alive, and the most advanced AI on Earth understands nothing it says. Expect to learn why Richard Dawkins is wrong that Claude could be conscious, why every era wrongly compares the brain to its fanciest technology, how a baseball outfielder reveals what the brain is really doing, why large language models are "Eliza on steroids" and 100% illusion, where meaning actually comes from and why LLMs can never have it, why the real danger isn't ChatGPT but the agentic systems that come next, whether a paramecium could be conscious, what Michael Levin's neuron-growing…

People in this episode

Host: Evan McGloughlin

Guest: Paul Cisek

Topics covered

  • neuroscience
  • artificial intelligence
  • consciousness
  • brain function
  • evolution
  • technology comparison

Keywords

  • neuroscience
  • conscious AI
  • control system
  • brain evolution
  • large language models
  • Richard Dawkins
  • Michael Levin
  • neuron
  • technology

Sponsors

Jenni, Muse EEG Headband

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Montreal

Products: Jenni, Muse EEG Headband

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