Abstract:

The question of whether artificial intelligence (AI) possesses consciousness can be examined through four progressively unfolding dimensions: the nature of consciousness, the operational mechanisms of AI, the basis for the non-replicability of consciousness, and the positioning of AI. First, consciousness has the dual cores of subjective experience and biological foundation: At the level of subjective experience, “qualia” and the “Mary’s Room” experiment explain the privacy and non-transmissibility of consciousness; while at the level of biological foundation, the correspondence between brain regions and functions, as well as clinical cases, demonstrates that consciousness is an emergent product of the biological processes of brain neurons, and it can be distinguished into “phenomenal consciousness” and “access consciousness” to reveal its qualitative and functional attributes. Second, the operational essence of AI is symbol manipulation and functional simulation under the “large-scale data training + algorithm optimization” model, which has three major limitations, that is, the absence of subjective experience, the absence of self-awareness, and the absence of genuine creative breakthroughs. The experiment of “Chinese Room” and the concept of “philosophical zombie” also corroborate the essential difference between AI and human consciousness. Furthermore, through the dual perspectives of philosophical thought experiments, including “Chinese Room”, “philosophical zombie”, and “consciousness replacement”, and neuroscientific mechanisms, including the functional specificity of brain regions, the potential role of quantum processes, and neuroplasticity, it can be proved that consciousness is non-replicable for it depends on subjective experience and a biological basis. On these grounds, AI should be positioned as a “tool extension” of human capabilities, with its value lying in enhancing human abilities in data processing and mechanical labor, while the subjective experience, meaning-making, and moral responsibility of human consciousness remain irreplaceable. In the future, a “human-machine collaboration” model should be upheld to achieve harmonious coexistence between humans and technology.

Key words: Artificial Intelligence (AI), consciousness, qualia, Chinese Room, neural phenomenal consciousness