Lerchner's paper arguing AI systems are structurally incapable of consciousness carries a disclaimer that his conclusions do not reflect Google's views. That sentence is not legal boilerplate — it is a signal that the institution has something to protect from the paper's implications. DeepMind's commercial position depends on a particular story about the trajectory of AI capability: that systems are becoming more sophisticated in ways that matter, that the gap between simulation and understanding is closing. Lerchner's argument, labeled the 'Abstraction Fallacy,' treats that gap as permanent and structural, not…