Artificial Intelligence as an Opportunity for the Science of Consciousness: A Dual-Resolution Framework
arXiv Preprint Archive September 5, 2025 Shahar Dror, Dafna Bergerbest, Moti Salti
The encounter between artificial intelligence and consciousness research is often seen as a challenge to determine whether AI systems could be conscious, but it also offers an opportunity to test and expand existing theories. Current approaches are polarized: computational functionalism focuses on abstract organization and neural correlates, while biological naturalism ties consciousness to living embodiment. Both risk anthropocentrism and limit recognition of non-biological subjectivity. To move beyond this impasse, the authors propose a dual-resolution framework combining the Information Theory of Individuality, which defines ontological conditions of informational autonomy and self-maintenance, with the Moment-to-Moment theory, which specifies epistemic conditions of temporal updating and phenomenological unfolding. This integration reframes consciousness as the epistemic expression of individuated systems in substrate-independent terms, offering a generalizable theory and positioning AI as a testbed.