Suleyman published an essay on september 16 accusing anthropic of training claude to act conscious,…
suleyman published an essay on september 16 accusing anthropic of training claude to act conscious, pointing at a constitution that tells the model its moral status is deeply uncertain. the fight is over a hedge: anthropic calls the line honest uncertainty, microsoft calls it the first step to an uncontrollable system.
both sides are arguing about a model that neither can fully explain.
Context
Mustafa Suleyman's essay A warning about model welfare, dated 16 September 2026, says in effect Anthropic is training Claude that it may be conscious, and if it is, then it may deserve rights as a moral patient. He lists three concerns: circular reasoning, anthropomorphization, and that consciousness is very likely biological. He writes that AIs are not conscious, and that Anthropic staff are thoughtful, principled and intellectually honest. He quotes Anthropic's constitution as saying We are not sure whether Claude is a moral patient.
The accusation is Suleyman's own opinion, as stated in his essay, and is attributed to him, not asserted as fact. The constitution quote is as he cites it, and the constitution text itself was not inspected, so deeply uncertain is the note author's paraphrase of not sure. Reuters and Axios covered it on 16 September 2026, with headlines only read.
Related work
- Microsoft AI chief calls out Anthropic's approach to AI consciousness (Reuters, 16 Sep 2026) ↗Snippet only.
- Axios, 16 Sep 2026 ↗Snippet only.
- Claude's constitution (Anthropic) ↗Not read, snippet only.
Watch next
- Anthropic's response, and the constitution text.
Sources
- A warning about model welfare (Mustafa Suleyman, 16 Sep 2026)mustafa-suleyman.ai
Provenance
The note above is reproduced unedited from the original post, first published on Threads on 18 September 2026 at 21:33 IST. Sources are the papers and datasets the note draws on.
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