Philosophical foundations of artificial consciousness

Area of Science:

• Philosophy of Mind
• Artificial Intelligence
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Consciousness, particularly its subjective nature, is widely considered unreproducible by artificial intelligence (AI).
• The perceived inaccessibility of subjective experience to computational methods fuels skepticism about artificial consciousness (AC).

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the validity of the inference that artificial consciousness (AC) is theoretically impossible.
• To challenge the prevailing pessimism regarding the creation of AC.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis
• Argumentation
• Distinctions in artificial consciousness (AC) theory
• Interactive empiricism
• Synthetic phenomenology
• Ontologically conservative heterophenomenology

Main Results:

• The study demonstrates that skepticism towards artificial consciousness (AC) is based on misunderstandings of AI and potential AC roles.
• Common arguments against AC do not preclude possibilities like prosthetic, discriminative, practically necessary, and lagom AC.

Conclusions:

• The theoretical possibility of artificial consciousness (AC) is not unfounded.
• A deeper understanding of AI and novel approaches to AC can overcome current skepticism.