What Dogs See That We Can’t The article explores the concept of consciousness, contrasting human capabilities with those of animals and machines, particularly in light of advancements in AI. It references Michael Pollan’s work on consciousness and Judith Shulevitz’s essay on the depiction of dogs in art, highlighting how dogs are often portrayed as perceiving things humans miss. The text suggests that while AI can master intellectual tasks, it lacks the sentience and emotional experience inherent in living beings, including dogs, which may explain why machine-made art falls short of brilliance.

• The current discourse on consciousness focuses on what separates humans from machines, shifting from historical debates about human-animal distinctions.
• Judith Shulevitz’s essay, inspired by Thomas W. Laqueur’s book ‘The Dog’s Gaze: A Visual History,’ examines how dogs in art are depicted as observers capable of communicating effectively.
• Michael Pollan’s exploration of consciousness suggests that elemental capacities like feelings and emotions, which humans share with animals, have proven more difficult for machines to master than ‘higher’ capabilities like reason and language.
• AI’s lack of sentience, emotion, and felt experience may explain the mediocrity of machine-made art and the shortcomings of large language models compared to human brilliance.
• The article contrasts the intellectual achievements of AI with the essential, non-uniquely human capabilities like sentience and emotion, which are central to intuition and artistic expression.