person
Christof Koch
Neuroscientist; Allen Institute for Brain Science
Neuroscientist known for work on the neural correlates of consciousness. Argues AI systems may approach consciousness on an integrated-information-theory basis.
Profile
expertise
External-domain expert
Recognised expert outside AI (philosophy, economics, biology, journalism) who weighs in on AI consequences from that vantage.
Allen Institute for Brain Science. Integrated Information Theory advocate; major figure in consciousness research.
recognition
Field-leading
Widely known inside the AI and AI-safety community. Appears repeatedly in top venues, podcasts, or governance forums. Not a household name to outsiders.
Recognised in neuroscience and consciousness fields.
vintage
Symbolic era
Career started in the GOFAI / expert-systems / early-rationalist period. Vinge's 1993 Singularity, MIRI founded 2000, Bostrom and Yudkowsky writing.
Allen Institute neuroscience program lead from 2011. Consciousness-and-computing work spans 1990s+.
Hand-classified. See the board for the criteria and the full grid.
Strategy positions
AI welfaremixed
Model welfare/moral status is a primary considerationTakes AI consciousness as a serious possibility under integrated information theory; wrote the foreword to Jeff Sebo's AI welfare paper.
Under integrated information theory, many artificial systems might have some degree of consciousness.
Closest strategy neighbours
by jaccard overlapOther people whose strategy tags overlap with Christof Koch's. Overlap is on tag identity, not stance; opposites can show up if they reference the same tags.
Record last updated 2026-04-25.