Can AIs Be Conscious? A Simple Map of the Debate
Can AIs Be Conscious? A simple map of the debate
Researchers Andres Campero, Derek Shiller, Jaan Aru, and Jonathan Simon offer a practical framework to sort arguments about whether digital AIs could be conscious.
They organize challenges along two axes:
- Level (in Marr's terms): what's being targeted—the goal of the system, the algorithms, or the physical implementation?
- Force: how strong is the claim?
- Degree 1: critiques of computational functionalism; digital consciousness still possible.
- Degree 2: practical hurdles; consciousness seems unlikely, not impossible.
- Degree 3: strict impossibility of digital consciousness.
They apply this to 14 well-known arguments, clarifying when a claim attacks functionalism versus digital consciousness itself, and helping people avoid talking past each other. The goal isn't to pick a winner—it's to make the debate clearer and more productive.
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.16582v1
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