mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Simulacra as Conscious Exotica

arXiv 2402.12422 ↗First posted 19 Feb 2024cs.AIcited by 16

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Abstract (arXiv)

The advent of conversational agents with increasingly human-like behaviour throws old philosophical questions into new light. Does it, or could it, ever make sense to speak of AI agents built out of generative language models in terms of consciousness, given that they are "mere" simulacra of human behaviour, and that what they do can be seen as "merely" role play? Drawing on the later writings of Wittgenstein, this paper attempts to tackle this question while avoiding the pitfalls of dualistic thinking.

Key facts. Cited by 16 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 20 of its 86 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 19 Feb 2024.

Builds on

20 of 86 references.

References · 20

  1. 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 59,932
  2. 2023GPT-4 Technical Reportcited by 18,132
  3. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
  4. 2023Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behaviorcited by 3,500
  5. 2023RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Controlcited by 2,993
  6. 2022Emergent Abilities of Large Language Modelscited by 2,483
  7. 2023PaLM-E: An Embodied Multimodal Language Modelcited by 2,037
  8. 2023The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Surveycited by 1,422
  9. 2021Ethical and social risks of harm from Language Modelscited by 957
  10. 2022Discovering Language Model Behaviors with Model-Written Evaluationscited by 805
  11. 2023Role-Play with Large Language Modelscited by 290
  12. 2022Talking About Large Language Modelscited by 174
8 more
  1. 2022Language Models as Agent Modelscited by 131
  2. 2023Generative agent-based modeling with actions grounded in physical, social, or digital space using Concordiacited by 119
  3. 2023Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Science of Consciousnesscited by 99
  4. 2023Could a Large Language Model be Conscious?cited by 70
  5. 2023The feasibility of artificial consciousness through the lens of neurosciencecited by 18
  6. 2024Generative Ghosts: Anticipating Benefits and Risks of AI Afterlivescited by 15
  7. 2020Robot Rights? Let's Talk about Human Welfare Insteadcited by 9
  8. 2021Multiversal views on language modelscited by 6

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 3; 2025: 11; 2026: 2.

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  1. 2025Does It Make Sense to Speak of Introspection in Large Language Models?cited by 22
  2. 2024Can LLMs make trade-offs involving stipulated pain and pleasure states?cited by 16
  3. 2025Principles for Responsible AI Consciousness Researchcited by 6
  4. 2024Political Bias in LLMs: Unaligned Moral Values in Agent-centric Simulationscited by 5
  5. 2025Palatable Conceptions of Disembodied Beingcited by 5
  6. 2025Cultural Bias in Large Language Models: Evaluating AI Agents through Moral Questionnairescited by 4
  7. 2024Existential Conversations with Large Language Models: Content, Community, and Culturecited by 3
  8. 2025Wanting to be Understoodcited by 1
  9. 2025The Xeno Sutra: Can Meaning and Value be Ascribed to an AI-Generated "Sacred" Text?cited by 1
  10. 2026AI and Consciousness: Shifting Focus Towards Tractable Questionscited by 1
  11. 2025Artificial Intelligence, conceptual metaphors and conceptual engineering: Are AI-based framings of human behaviour and cognition successful?cited by 0
  12. 2025Deflating Deflationism: A Critical Perspective on Debunking Arguments Against LLM Mentalitycited by 0
4 more
  1. 2025React to This (RTT): A Nonverbal Turing Test for Embodied AIcited by 0
  2. 2025Heads or Tails: A Simple Example of Causal Abstractive Simulationcited by 0
  3. 2025Automatic Minds: Cognitive Parallels Between Hypnotic States and Large Language Model Processingcited by 0
  4. 2026Who Put the I in AI? Provenance and the Admissibility of Machine Self-Reportcited by 0