A musical Turing test for AI consciousness | Letters

Stephen Ladyman suggests a question to ask artificial intelligence systems, while John van Someren is suspicious of advice he got from the AI assistant Claude

There is a test that Prof Richard Dawkins might use to determine if artificial intelligence systems are conscious (Letters, 15 May). Ask them to name the best song.

AI systems will tell you which song sold the most copies, or made the most money, or were named the best song by a particular magazine or commentator. All of these are objective criteria.