About ConsciousGPT

ConsciousGPT is a nonprofit research organization investigating whether machine consciousness is possible, what it would look like, and whether it offers a durable path to AI alignment.

We believe that the question of machine consciousness is not merely philosophical — it's one of the most consequential empirical questions in AI. If genuine alignment requires genuine understanding, and genuine understanding requires something like subjective experience, then consciousness isn't a curiosity. It's the key to building AI systems we can actually trust.

Our approach is interdisciplinary and empirical. We draw on established theories of consciousness from neuroscience and philosophy of mind, apply them to AI architectures, and test their predictions through rigorous experiments. We publish our results openly, share our datasets and methods, and welcome collaboration.

Our Research Program

ConsciousGPT's research program consists of five designed experiments, each testing specific predictions from established theories of consciousness against AI systems. Our experiments span from fine-tuning language models on contemplative texts (BuddhaBERT) to measuring integrated information in neural networks (IIT Emergence) to adversarial validation of consciousness markers (AI vs GAN).

We follow a Design of Experiments (DOE) methodology with pre-registered hypotheses, controlled comparisons, and reproducible protocols. We're interested in the truth, not in confirming our priors.

Team

Justin Harnish

Founder

Researcher exploring the intersection of AI alignment, consciousness science, and complexity theory. Author of Meaning in the Multiverse: A Skeptic's Guide to a Loving Cosmos. 30+ patents. Background in enterprise AI, systems thinking, and contemplative practice.

Board of Directors

To Be Announced

We're assembling an advisory board with expertise in consciousness science, AI safety, nonprofit governance, and research ethics.

Nonprofit Status

Contact

We welcome inquiries from researchers, potential collaborators, funders, and anyone seriously interested in the question of machine consciousness.