Shiller, Derek (2025) How many digital minds can dance on the streaming multiprocessors of a GPU cluster? [Preprint]

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Abstract

Some of the technical details of the implementation of modern AI systems raise novel questions about computationalist functionalism. In particular, GPU clusters processing large language models often interweave the computations for many different chat responses. If the computations underlying these language models were to give rise to consciousness when run in isolation, it is not clear what to make of their status when they are interwoven. This paper draws on debates in the personal identity literature to present two alternative options, one in which many minds can be interwoven in one GPU cluster, and one on which at most a single mind can exist. Each position is coherent and it is not clear how to resolve the central issues. This is likely to be a source of further uncertainty about consciousness in production AI setups.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Shiller, Derek dcshiller@gmail.com 0000-0003-3768-3012
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Computation/Information Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Consciousness
Depositing User:	Derek Shiller
Date Deposited:	16 Oct 2025 11:07
Last Modified:	16 Oct 2025 11:07
Item ID:	26933
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Computation/Information Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Consciousness
Date:	October 2025
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/26933

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