What is consciousness? Can AI be conscious?

In a fascinating new article, Anil Seth develops the case for “biological naturalism”: consciousness may be inseparable from being alive.

A biological neuron is not simply a computer that receives an input and “fires” an output.

It is a living cell that regulates its chemistry, consumes energy, repairs itself, and preserves the conditions of its own existence.

And this capacity, called“autopoiesis”, may represent the critical divergence between living organisms and AI:

To remain alive, an organism must keep itself within a narrow range of viable states.

It therefore predicts what it should encounter and acts to correct deviations, in order to minimize the risk of death.

This may explain why conscious experiences have the character they do:

Perceptions help the organism infer what is happening around it;

Emotions, feeling good or bad, reflect whether its internal condition supports or threatens its survival.

Perhaps conscious AI is possible. But it may require a machine that is not merely intelligent, but in some meaningful sense alive.

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