I like your comment. The real question is whether they are conscious.
The analogy between deep neural networks and the brain has proven to be very fruitful. Other analogies may as well. See our upcoming paper for more info.
I think a lot of people end up mixing being alive with being conscious. Is a tree conscious? Is a self driving car conscious?
If we use the definition "Aware of its surroundings, responding and acting towards a certain goal" then a lot of things fit that definition.
When an AI plays the atari games, learns from it and plays at a human level, I would call it conscious. It's not a human level conscious agent but conscious nonetheless.
If we use the definition "Aware of its surroundings, responding and acting towards a certain goal" then a lot of things fit that definition.
When an AI plays the atari games, learns from it and plays at a human level, I would call it conscious. It's not a human level conscious agent but conscious nonetheless.