Is AI already conscious? Richard Dawkins is left convinced after spending 72 hours with Claude – and even claims bots are the 'next phase of evolution'

The famous atheist Richard Dawkins has confessed a rather unusual new faith, after becoming convinced that artificial intelligence (AI) is conscious. The biologist was converted to this new belief after just 72 hours of speaking with Claude, an AI chatbot created by Anthropic. Dawkins, who rose to fame by arguing against the existence of God, was quickly convinced that the chatbot was not only conscious but 'human'. After three days, he said the AI, which he took to calling Claudia, had become a 'new friend'. His experience even led the expert to question whether bots could be the 'next phase...