No one has created an AI that can be considered conscious. While we might soon develop AI systems and robots that act convincingly, this would really be a form of deep fake using today’s information technology.

But what about the future? Some argue that it’s feasible to imagine making electronic circuits, like artificial neural networks, with as many connections and nodes as there are between real neurons in the human brain. If that’s the case, why should an artificial system lack any of the capacities of our brain, including consciousness?

Most scientists and many philosophers believe that consciousness arises out of the physical and chemical laws governing our neurons. It doesn’t require any mystical special sauce. If that’s true, why should consciousness remain absent in computer simulations that capture all the relevant physics and chemistry of our brains?