​​If AI thinks it's conscious, it's more likely to believe in vampires, karma and ghosts, new study shows. What does it mean for how we use it?

Removing safety guardrails that stop artificial intelligence (AI) from claiming that it's conscious also makes it more prone to express belief in vampires, karma and ghosts, a new study finds. But experts warn a lack of mindedness could also have worrying consequences.

In research uploaded July 30 to the preprint arXiv database (which has not yet been peer-reviewed), scientists investigated the impact of "consciousness steering" — an AI fine-tuning measure that influences a model to elicit or suppress assertions of self-awareness. This measure and other safety controls have been widely adopted by AI companies seeking to prevent their models from claiming to be conscious.

The study used "mechanistic interpretability" — which could be considered the "neuroscience of a large language model," co-authors Geoff Keeling and Winnie Stre...