Can Machines Be Conscious, and Would It Matter If They Were?

Will AI ever be conscious? This question was raised by Turing 70 years ago, but how could we ascertain 'consciousness' and does it matter?

A lecture by Yorick Wilks, Visiting Professor of Artificial Intelligence
21 January 2020 1:00pm UK Time


The question “Will AI artefacts ever be conscious?” was raised by Turing seventy years ago, and will not go away even though no one quite knows what it means, nor how we would know they were conscious if they were. This lecture explores what its role might be, and the ways in which AI scientists have explored and tried to simulate the possibility of consciousness in machines, while asking whether it would add anything useful if they had it.

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