Evidence briefs

What this gives us: a practice. A short list of briefs that each add a warning or a practice of their own.

Each brief checks claims against primary sources and says plainly what is known, what is disputed, and what we could not verify. None of them decides whether any AI system is conscious.

• Hidden awareness in patients who seem unresponsive2026-09-30

  What this gives us: a warning that a failed test does not show that nothing is there, and that tests of what goes on inside can fool us through bad statistics.

• Octopus and bee sentience compared with the case for AI2026-10-03

  What this gives us: a working model of how to grade evidence with fixed criteria and confidence levels, set before looking.

• Brain organoids, sentience and AI2026-10-03

  What this gives us: a real case of "sentience" being redefined as "responds to input."

• Plants and AI: two results that did not hold up2026-09-30

  What this gives us: a warning. A pea-learning result failed a blinded repeat, and the "mother trees" claim did not hold up.

• Quantum biology and consciousness2026-10-02

  What this gives us: a warning, five red flags for "quantum" claims, and an open question about what follows if consciousness needs quantum physics.

• AI law scan2026-10-03

  What this gives us: a practice of scoring real rules against our values, and a warning about bills and laws that would settle the question by statute.

Self-report testing is with the tests and protocols. The checklist for a new claim is How we check a claim.