Eye on A.I. · Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Dr. Christof Koch mentioned that research indicates approximately 25% of patients previously considered to be in a vegetative state are, in fact, conscious. He highlighted that these individuals are unable to communicate their state externally.
“For instance, there are many patients that are behaviorally unresponsive, they used to be called vegetative state. We know now that 25% of these people are actually conscious. They're fully conscious, or they may be fully conscious, we simply don't know.”
“But we can't communicate that to the outside. So they're like astronauts, okay?”