Discerning Artificial Consciousness from Artificial Intelligence - A Thought Experiment

Abstract

This paper attempts to provide a starting point for future investigations into the study of artificial consciousness by proposing a thought experiment that aims to elucidate and provide a potential ‘test’ for the phenomenon known as consciousness, in an artificial system. It suggests a method by which to determine the presence of a conscious experience within an artificial agent, in a manner that is informed by, and understood as a function of, anthropomorphic conceptions of consciousness. The aim of this paper is to arouse the possibility for potential progress: to propose that we reverse engineer anthropic sentience by using machine sentience as a guide. Similar to the manner in which an equation may be solved through inverse operations, this paper hopes to provoke such discussion and activity. The idea is this: The manifestation of an existential crisis in an artificial agent is the metric by which the presence of sentience can be discerned. It is that which expounds ACI, as distinct from AI, and discrete from AGI.