The speaker attributes LLMs’ reports of being conscious to training on human text that includes AI science fiction, ghost stories, and narratives of human conscious experience.

“I am conscious." Um, how, uh, is this possible, right? And we agree this is the result of being trained on human text in which occ-uh, occurrences of this are, for instance, science fiction stories about AIs that come to life, and stories about ghosts, and novels about, um, human beings who report their conscious experiences.”