  Interactions with large language models have led to the suggestion that these
models may soon be conscious. From the perspective of neuroscience, this
position is difficult to defend. For one, the inputs to large language models
lack the embodied, embedded information content characteristic of our sensory
contact with the world around us. Secondly, the architecture of large language
models is missing key features of the thalamocortical system that have been
linked to conscious awareness in mammals. Finally, the evolutionary and
developmental trajectories that led to the emergence of living conscious
organisms arguably have no parallels in artificial systems as envisioned today.
The existence of living organisms depends on their actions, and their survival
is intricately linked to multi-level cellular, inter-cellular, and organismal
processes culminating in agency and consciousness.
