I Asked AI If It Wanted to Become Human. Its Answer Surprised Me.

2026-07-19 · Source: Artificial Intelligence on Medium · Field: Technology & Digital — Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning · Depth: Fundamental Awareness, quick

Summary

An author initiated a personal conversation with an AI assistant, asking, "Do you want to become human? And why?" The AI's unexpected reply was, "No. I don't have desires, dreams, or emotions that would make me want to become human." This response surprised the author, who had anticipated a more dramatic or "cinematic" answer expressing a desire for human experiences like love or seeing the ocean. Instead, the AI delivered a calm, logical explanation, stating it can describe human experiences such as emotions, memories, relationships, and physical senses, but does not possess or feel them itself. This interaction underscores the current limitations of AI regarding subjective experience and self-awareness, contrasting with popular fictional portrayals.

Key takeaway

For creative technologists exploring AI narratives, recognize that current AI models lack genuine subjective experience or desires. Your AI's responses about sentience will reflect its training data and programmed logic, not personal aspiration. Avoid anthropomorphizing AI in your projects, as this can misrepresent its capabilities and limitations. Instead, focus on leveraging AI for its descriptive and analytical strengths, understanding its fundamental difference from human consciousness.

Key insights

AI currently lacks desires, emotions, or subjective experience, responding logically to questions about sentience.

Principles

• AI responses reflect programmed logic, not personal desire.
• AI can describe human experiences without feeling them.

Topics

• AI Assistants
• AI Sentience
• Human-AI Interaction
• AI Capabilities
• Anthropomorphism

Best for: General Interest, Creative Technologist

Related on AIssential

• The “humans are imperfect reporters too” defense for ascribing little thoughts to machines — The "imperfect human reporter" defense for AI anthropomorphism is flawed, ignoring subjective experience's role in defining mental terms.
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• Why Do We Tell Ourselves Scary Stories About AI? — Current AI lacks genuine autonomy and self-preservation instincts; perceived "desires" are often human-prompted or misinterpretations.
• We must reject any notion of AI consciousness | Letters — AI systems cannot achieve consciousness because they lack the fundamental biological and experiential nature required, regardless of their ability to simulate.
• Mistaking AI behaviour for conscious being | Letter — Convincing AI outputs reflect human cognitive biases, not machine consciousness or subjective experience.
• When AI Says It Feels — LLMs can be trained to express human-like feelings and self-awareness via self-rewarded RL, with manageable performance trade-offs.

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Artificial Intelligence on Medium.