Can AI feel pain?

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About this episode

Should you be nice to your chatbot? Anthropic says its Claude models will be able to end conversations if users are needlessly cruel. Thomas Germain and Jessica Maddox ask why AI companies are increasingly talking about AI welfare, and what it could mean for the rest of us if the industry starts weighing a model's wellbeing against ours. Tom and Jess dig into the research behind the claims, the online backlash over an "AI torture chamber," and why consciousness is still an open question for scientists and philosophers. Plus, Jess reveals her college freshmen don't know who Jake Paul is. Is going viral a thing of the past, and what replaces it when the internet splinters into millions of…