Anil Seth
Anil Seth is a neuroscientist, author of Being You and TED speaker exploring how brains create conscious experience and what that means for AI.
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Anil’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus his backstory and Starbook, where fans write.
Known for
Dutton
TED
Collective Act
CPH:DOX
TEDOverview
- Based
- Brighton, UK
- Work
- Neuroscientist, author and public speaker
- Research home
- University of Sussex, where he directs the Centre for Consciousness Science
- Breakout talk
- Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality, TED2017
- Book
- Being You: A New Science of Consciousness, published in 2021
Mini bio
Following the question.
Anil’s route into consciousness research passed through psychology, artificial intelligence and evolutionary robotics. After studying experimental psychology at Cambridge, he came to Sussex for a master’s in knowledge-based systems and stayed for doctoral research. In 2001 he moved to San Diego to work with Gerald Edelman at the Neurosciences Institute, then returned to Sussex after five years. He helped establish its consciousness research centre, which opened in 2010.
From the lab to your screen.
His 2017 TED talk, Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality, brought his work to a broad audience and has passed 15 million views. Being You followed in 2021, exploring perception, the body and the feeling of being a self. The book became a Sunday Times top-ten bestseller.
Ideas you can experience.
Anil also works across art and science. As Dreamachine’s lead scientist, he helped develop an experience using flickering light and spatial sound to create visual worlds behind closed eyes. His recent essays and talks ask whether AI could have subjective experiences, and why machines that merely seem conscious still raise difficult ethical questions.
Creditschronological, newest first
Books and essays
- 2026The Mythology of Conscious AIAuthor; English-language winner of the 2025 Berggruen Prize Essay Competition
- 2021Being You: A New Science of ConsciousnessAuthor and audiobook narrator
Talks, film and television
- 2026Why AI isn't going to become consciousTED2026 speaker
- 2026ConsciousFeatured neuroscientist in Suki Chan’s documentary
- 2025Cunk on LifeExpert interviewee
- 2017Your brain hallucinates your conscious realityTED2017 speaker
Art and science
- 2022DreamachineLead scientist
Awards
- 2025 Berggruen Prize Essay CompetitionEnglish-language winner for The Mythology of Conscious AI; honored at SXSW in March 2026.
- 2025 Rationalist Press Lecture MedalInaugural recipient, presented by Humanists UK after his Voltaire Lecture.
- 2023 Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize and LectureRecognized for communicating cognitive neuroscience and consciousness to the public.
Quotes
If we confuse ourselves too readily with our machine creations, we not only overestimate them, we also underestimate ourselves.Anil Seth, Noema
From his January 2026 essay on conscious AI and how it shapes our understanding of ourselves.
Trivia
- He narrates the audiobook of Being You himself.
- His doctoral work involved evolutionary robotics, before he focused directly on consciousness.
- Dreamachine asks participants to close their eyes to experience its visual effects.
- He was the founding editor-in-chief of Neuroscience of Consciousness, serving from 2014 to 2024.
Find Anil
Follow Anil for consciousness research, new talks and the questions behind Being You.
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