Can AI Be Conscious? Why Science Needs New Words for Machine Minds

6. AI consciousness and social interaction challenge rational thinking and language

Starting from evolutionary and neuroscientific data, we have listed above a number of features that AI research might take into account in its attempts to advance the development of artificial consciousness. Some of the limitations of current AI that we have outlined had already been identified by other authors, such as the role of embodiment, emotions, and motivation in machine consciousness, and the issue of robot experience (Chella & Manzotti, 2009; Montemayor, 2023), while others appear less explored. Among these, the capacity for interaction between individuals in a social group which gives rise to a number of humanspecific dispositions, including theory of mind, cultural experience and ethical responsibility. In principle, the fact that AI constructs have a different physical structure and a different functional organization than biological systems that are probably conscious (even ...