There's something interesting here, where the very thing that prompted the LLM boom (transformer networks) was the thing that introduced a higher level of information integration into neural networks; under the somewhat mainstream theory (not to say uncontroversial, though) that consciousness is a function of Integrative Information (IIT), it could be said that transformers are in a real way more conscious than previous architectures.
Exactly. The central thesis, consciousness not being necessary for intelligence, is very relevant today.
Of course, the existential horror background in the book was also quite well done.