# AI Consciousness and Existential Risk

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.19115 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.19115/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 39 of its 120 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 24 Nov 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 39)

- [The Platonic Representation Hypothesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.07987/) (2024)
- [Deliberative Alignment: Reasoning Enables Safer Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.16339/) (2024)
- [The Illusion of Thinking: Understanding the Strengths and Limitations of Reasoning Models via the Lens of Problem Complexity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06941/) (2025)
- [Role-Play with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16367/) (2023)
- [Model Context Protocol (MCP): Landscape, Security Threats, and Future Research Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.23278/) (2025)
- [An Overview of Catastrophic AI Risks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.12001/) (2023)
- [Agentic Misalignment: How LLMs Could Be Insider Threats](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.05179/) (2025)
- [Agentic Large Language Models, a survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.23037/) (2025)
- [The Consciousness Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.08568/) (2017)
- [Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Science of Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.08708/) (2023)
- [Coordination Among Neural Modules Through a Shared Global Workspace](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.01197/) (2021)
- [Toward Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence: Catalyzing the NeuroAI Revolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.08340/) (2022)
- [Can We Trust AI Benchmarks? An Interdisciplinary Review of Current Issues in AI Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.06559/) (2025)
- [Word meaning in minds and machines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.01766/) (2020)
- [KGGen: Extracting Knowledge Graphs from Plain Text with Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.09956/) (2025)
- [An Approach to Technical AGI Safety and Security](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.01849/) (2025)
- [Why AI is Harder Than We Think](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.12871/) (2021)
- [Deep Learning and the Global Workspace Theory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.10390/) (2020)
- [Taking AI Welfare Seriously](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.00986/) (2024)
- [TASRA: a Taxonomy and Analysis of Societal-Scale Risks from AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.06924/) (2023)
- [A Theory of Consciousness from a Theoretical Computer Science Perspective: Insights from the Conscious Turing Machine](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.13704/) (2021)
- [Large Language Models Report Subjective Experience Under Self-Referential Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.24797/) (2025)
- [The feasibility of artificial consciousness through the lens of neuroscience](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.00915/) (2023)
- [Semi-supervised Multimodal Representation Learning through a Global Workspace](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.15711/) (2023)
- [Is artificial consciousness achievable? Lessons from the human brain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.04540/) (2024)
- [A Theoretical Computer Science Perspective on Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.09850/) (2020)
- [Dissociating Artificial Intelligence from Artificial Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04571/) (2024)
- [Benchmarking is Broken -- Don't Let AI be its Own Judge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.07575/) (2025)
- [Does Thought Require Sensory Grounding? From Pure Thinkers to Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.09605/) (2024)
- [Principles for Responsible AI Consciousness Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.07290/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In AI, the existential risk denotes the hypothetical threat posed by an artificial system that would possess both the capability and the objective, either directly or indirectly, to eradicate humanity. This issue is gaining prominence in scientific debate due to recent technical advancements and increased media coverage. In parallel, AI progress has sparked speculation and studies about the potential emergence of artificial consciousness. The two questions, AI consciousness and existential risk, are sometimes conflated, as if the former entailed the latter. Here, I explain that this view stems from a common confusion between consciousness and intelligence. Yet these two properties are empirically and theoretically distinct. Arguably, while intelligence is a direct predictor of an AI system's existential threat, consciousness is not. There are, however, certain incidental scenarios in which consciousness could influence existential risk, in either direction. Consciousness could be viewed as a means towards AI alignment, thereby lowering existential risk; or, it could be a precondition for reaching certain capabilities or levels of intelligence, and thus positively related to existential risk. Recognizing these distinctions can help AI safety researchers and public policymakers focus on the most pressing issues.