ChatGPT, the latest technological sensation, is an artificial intelligence chatbot with an amazing ability to carry on a conversation. It relies on a massive network of artificial neurons that loosely mimics the human brain, and it has been trained by analyzing the information resources of the internet. My teenage son recently used ChatGPT to argue about politics with an imitation Karl Marx. As a neuroscientist specializing in the brain mechanisms of consciousness, I find talking to chatbots an unsettling experience. But given the rate of technological improvement, will they be in the next couple of years?

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