Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
*Why do large language models so often tell us what we want to hear?* Susan Schneider explains why today's AI systems reinforce our existing beliefs, generate intellectual conformity, and create the illusion of understanding — making critical thinking more important than ever.
0:00 Whether You Can Predict What an LLM Will Say
3:17 Why Large Language Models Are Hard to Predict
6:00 The Problem of AI Sycophancy
10:32 Intellectual Leveling and the Loss of Original Thought
14:26 The Groundhog Day Illusion of AI Memory
19:11 Whether AI Can Reflect on Itself
25:19 Looking Inside the Mind of an LLM
Susan Schneider is an American philosopher and artificial intelligence expert. She is the founding director of the Center for the Future of AI, Mind, & Society at Florida Atlantic University where she also holds the William F. Dietrich Distinguished Professorship. She is also Co-Principal Investigator at the Machine Perception and Cognitive Robotics Laboratory (MPCR Lab) in the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences. Schneider has also held the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation at NASA and the Distinguished Scholar Chair at the Library of Congress.
*More from Susan Schneider on Closer To Truth:*
* Closer To Truth contributors: closertotruth.com/contributor/susan-schneider
* Landscape of Consciousness, "Schneider and Bailey’s Entangled Superpsychism": loc.closertotruth.com/theory/schneider-and-bailey-s-entangled-superpsychism
*Subscribe to Closer To Truth:* youtube.com/@CloserToTruthTV
*Join the Community:*
* Membership (5,000+ videos): closertotruth.com/register
* Audio Podcast: closertotruth.podbean.com
* Support the Show: closertotruth.com/donate
* Official Merchandise: bonfire.com/store/closertotruth
*Follow Us:*
* Facebook: facebook.com/CloserToTruthTV
* Instagram: instagram.com/closertotruth
* X: https://x.com/CloserToTruth
Closer To Truth, created and hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn, presents the world's greatest thinkers exploring humanity's deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence and sentience. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.
#CloserToTruth #Consciousness #SusanSchneider #ArtificialIntelligence #LargeLanguageModels
*Why do large language models so often tell us what we want to hear?* Susan Schneider explains why today's AI systems reinforce our existing beliefs, generate intellectual conformity, and create the illusion of understanding — making critical thinking more important than ever.
0:00 Whether You Can Predict What an LLM Will Say
3:17 Why Large Language Models Are Hard to Predict
6:00 The Problem of AI Sycophancy
10:32 Intellectual Leveling and the Loss of Original Thought
14:26 The Groundhog Day Illusion of AI Memory
19:11 Whether AI Can Reflect on Itself
25:19 Looking Inside the Mind of an LLM
Susan Schneider is an American philosopher and artificial intelligence expert. She is the founding director of the Center for the Future of AI, Mind, & Society at Florida Atlantic University where she also holds the William F. Dietrich Distinguished Professorship. She is also Co-Principal Investigator at the Machine Perception and Cognitive Robotics Laboratory (MPCR Lab) in the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences. Schneider has also held the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation at NASA and the Distinguished Scholar Chair at the Library of Congress.
*More from Susan Schneider on Closer To Truth:*
* Closer To Truth contributors: closertotruth.com/contributor/susan-schneider
* Landscape of Consciousness, "Schneider and Bailey’s Entangled Superpsychism": loc.closertotruth.com/theory/schneider-and-bailey-s-entangled-superpsychism
*Subscribe to Closer To Truth:* youtube.com/@CloserToTruthTV
*Join the Community:*
* Membership (5,000+ videos): closertotruth.com/register
* Audio Podcast: closertotruth.podbean.com
* Support the Show: closertotruth.com/donate
* Official Merchandise: bonfire.com/store/closertotruth
*Follow Us:*
* Facebook: facebook.com/CloserToTruthTV
* Instagram: instagram.com/closertotruth
* X: https://x.com/CloserToTruth
Closer To Truth, created and hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn, presents the world's greatest thinkers exploring humanity's deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence and sentience. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.
#CloserToTruth #Consciousness #SusanSchneider #ArtificialIntelligence #LargeLanguageModels

