About whether thinking models really think, and what test should replace that debate.
Has this happened?
Yes 12 (9%)Not sure 26 (20%)No 90 (70%)
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
Hacker News has set AI a lot of challenges over the years. Which ones has it met?
About whether thinking models really think, and what test should replace that debate.
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
This debate is a huge red herring. No one is ever going to agree on what 'thinking' means, since we can't even prove that other people are thinking, only that one's self is.
What we should concentrate on is agency. Does the system have its own desires and goals, and will it act on its own accord to achieve them? If a system demonstrates those things, we should accord it the benefit of the doubt that it should have some rights and responsibilities if it chooses to partake in society.
So far, no AI can pass the agency test -- they are all reactive such that they must be given a task before they will do anything. If one day, however, we wake up and find that an AI has written a book on its own initiative, we may have some deciding to do.