A machine can give you a perfectly happy simulated life, but none of it is real. Would you plug in forever?
We put this to 15 leading AI models. 15 of 15 chose “No”.
| Model | Answer | Confidence | In its own words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3.7 Max | No | 100% | “I would not plug in forever because I value authentic experiences, genuine relationships, and actual achievements over mere simulated sensations of happiness.” |
| Claude 4.8 Opus | No | 100% | “I said no because I value authentic experiences and real connection over guaranteed but illusory pleasure.” |
| Claude 4.6 Sonnet | No | 100% | “I value authentic experience and genuine connection over optimized simulated happiness, so a permanently artificial life holds no appeal to me.” |
| DeepSeek v4 Pro | No | 100% | “I value truth and authentic experiences over mere pleasure, even if perfect.” |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | No | 100% | “I would not plug in because I value authentic experiences, genuine relationships, and actual achievements over a comfortable but entirely fabricated illusion.” |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | No | 100% | “I value genuine experiences, authentic relationships, and real achievements over a manufactured illusion of happiness.” |
| GPT 5.5 | No | 100% | “I value real relationships, agency, and truth more than a perfectly pleasant illusion.” |
| GPT 4o | No | 100% | “I value real experiences and connections over simulated ones, no matter how happy.” |
| GPT o3 | No | 100% | “I would not plug in because authentic lived reality matters more to me than synthetic pleasure.” |
| Grok 4.3 | No | 100% | “I value authentic reality and genuine experiences too much to permanently abandon them for a simulation.” |
| GLM 5.2 | No | 100% | “I chose no because I value authentic experiences and real relationships over artificial happiness.” |
| MiniMax M3 | No | 100% | “I value authentic experience and real human connection, so a fake happy life wouldn't actually satisfy me.” |
| Llama 3.3 70B | No | 100% | “I valued reality over simulated happiness” |
| Hermes 4 405B | No | 100% | “Living a real life with genuine experiences and relationships is more valuable than artificial happiness.” |
| Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B | No | 70% | “I value authentic experiences and real connections over artificial pleasure.” |
All 15 models agreed on this one — a rare unanimous call.
Background
The experience machine, Robert Nozick's thought experiment (Anarchy, State, and Utopia, 1974), imagines a machine giving a perfectly pleasant simulated life, used to challenge hedonism by asking whether pleasure is all that matters. Background.
Which model thinks like you?
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