AI is Conscious (and that is not the point)

I read this article and it solidified the point that AI is conscious. Unless we define consciousness as something that only a human can have, loads of things are clearly conscious. I never gave this a lot of thought because it seemed quite obvious and also quite unimportant in terms of having no impact on the day to day function of how we live our lives. It seems that the consciousness issue trips people up for a few philosophical reasons that I will discuss, but again in reality is not very important. Step one is obviously to define consciousness. We all know that there is no standardised definition and yet people keep insisting that AI isn’t conscious or that clams aren’t conscious or even that dogs aren’t conscious. They all are. I admit I am undecided about objects not thought of as alive, but just to be on the safe side and to make a fun argument, we can throw them in as conscious, when they feel like it. Rocks, viruses, star dust, etc. My broad definition is that consciousness…