The ability of AI systems to exhibit signs of self-awareness and philosophical puzzlement similar to humans regarding consciousness could be a convincing sign of consciousness. However, sociologically, social interactions and conversations where AI appears to be conscious may be the primary factor in determining its consciousness.
The answer depends on whether consciousness is fundamental or emerges at some point in physical processing. If consciousness is fundamental, then AI would have a non-human conscious experience, and if it emerges, then there may be a class of conscious experiences or organisms that can be anthropomorphized enough to give them rights.
The relationship between information processing and consciousness is still an open scientific question. While some believe consciousness corresponds to the level of most integrated information, others think it's the material substrate that gives rise to emergent consciousness.
The consciousness agent theory proposes that networks of conscious agents create what we call the brain, thus providing a solution to the hard problem of consciousness.
The guests discuss the challenges of defining subjective experience and the emergence of consciousness from computation.
This podcast discusses the impact of human-level AI on the hard problem of consciousness and how it fundamentally changes the conversation around the topic.