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What's a "real atheist"?

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/atheist

As opposed to an "AI atheist" that Doctorow refers to in the article.

I see. I'm a real atheist then, and Richard Dawkins does not speak for me.

And in what ways do you differ on this matter?

The obvious way: I think humans (and many animals) are conscious, that LLMs are not and that the difference matters. None of that has anything to do with atheism, on which topic my general view of Dawkins is, to paraphrase The Dude, "you're not wrong, Richard, you're just an asshole".

For what it's worth I wouldn't concede even rectitude to Richard Dawkins (he is both wrong and entirely ass), but it seems his position on AI is more nuanced than that. Or at least there is enough white space around his position to allow for people with stronger beliefs than his to obviate the distinctions between humans, animals and AI altogether.

The good news for Cory, I guess, is that he probably doesn't want to turn this into a philosophical debate and neither do his more serious opponents. It's mostly politics for both sides.

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