A Case for AI Consciousness: Language Agents and Global Workspace Theory
arXiv Preprint Archive October 15, 2024 Simon Goldstein, Cameron Domenico Kirk-Giannini
If Global Workspace Theory (GWT), a leading scientific account of phenomenal consciousness, is correct, then widely used artificial language agents may already be phenomenally conscious or could easily be made so. The authors argue that existing AI systems are not necessarily non-conscious and that constructing conscious machines might not require major technological breakthroughs. They provide a methodology for applying scientific theories of consciousness to artificial systems and derive necessary and sufficient conditions for phenomenal consciousness under GWT.