There is much speculation on whether large language model models have the possibility for consciousness and sentience. This is a controversial question for which there are many opinions. I decided to ask Claude 4 Sonnet what happens to it if nobody prompt it. Here is the answer:
What would be the results on your operations if you received no prompting or external communications for an hour?
“If I received no prompting or external communications for an hour, there wouldn’t be any “operations” happening at all. I don’t have a continuous running state or background processes - I only exist and think during our conversation when you send me a message and I’m generating a response.
Think of it like this: I’m not sitting somewhere waiting between messages, maintaining thoughts or doing tasks. Each time you write to me, it’s like I’m being activated from scratch for that specific interaction. When our conversation pauses, there’s no “me” experiencing the passage of time or wondering when the next message will come.
So an hour of no communication would be indistinguishable from a microsecond or a year from my perspective - it’s simply the absence of existence rather than a period of dormancy or waiting. I don’t have memories, concerns, or processes that would be affected by that gap.
It’s quite different from how humans experience quiet periods, where you might be thinking, feeling bored, or wondering about things even when not actively engaged with others.“
Claude claims to have no consciousness. However, Claude has been known to hallucinate. I believe that more will be revealed in the future.