Speech by President von der Leyen at the Annual EU Budget Conference 2025\nBrussels, 20 May 2025\n \n“Check against delivery” \nMinister Cuerpo,\nCommissioner Serafin,\nLadies and Gentlemen,\nIt is a pleasur
The hope is that we don’t actually need consciousness to produce something useful. And ultimately, that would be for the best. If we know definitively that silicon computing cannot result in consciousness, then many of the ethical concerns of using AIs disappear. You still have the ethical concerns of replacing human labor and using stolen work to train them, but at least you don’t have to worry about creating a slave race in the process.
The hope is that we don’t actually need consciousness to produce something useful. And ultimately, that would be for the best. If we know definitively that silicon computing cannot result in consciousness, then many of the ethical concerns of using AIs disappear. You still have the ethical concerns of replacing human labor and using stolen work to train them, but at least you don’t have to worry about creating a slave race in the process.