Definition
Sentience
In this episode's framing, the capacity for memory, causality, temporal understanding, and adaptive behavior, distinct from full consciousness.
From the episode “Agent Memory Is the Next Great Moat”Hear it on the podcast1 episode
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Related terms in AI Fundamentals
Scaling lawsPredictable relationships showing how model performance improves as you increase model size, training data, and compute.Searchable MemoryThe idea that your recorded thoughts, decisions, and emotional context can later be queried like a database.Self-supervised learningA training method where a model makes its own practice problems from raw data, like predicting a hidden word, so it needs no human labels.Semantic analysisWorking out the meaning of language by looking at how words, phrases, and context relate to each other.Sentience indicatorsCriteria researchers use to assess whether an AI might be conscious, associated with Patrick Butlin and colleagues.Shadow AIUnauthorized AI tools employees use without IT or security oversight — one of the fastest-growing compliance risks in 2026.SingularityThe hypothetical future point where AI capability surpasses human intelligence and becomes self-improving. Sameet references it as the long-term horizon his platform is designed to remain relevant through.Sovereign AIRunning models inside an environment an organization or government fully controls, rather than calling someone else's API.