Saying it “might” may seem irrelevant but it’s not technically wrong to claim something might have consciousness. It’s sort of a “definitely maybe” thing as opposed to a “definitely not, a priori impossible” type thing. That’s the tension I’m working between.

There’s probably a continuum of things between a rock and a person, where the possibility increases. I think AI is climbing this continuum as it begins to exhibit emergent properties and agentic behaviors, which it has.

Also consider panpsychism. There is no good reason to be certain that something isn’t conscious. We just don’t know enough about consciousness to talk in certainties. I think doing so is a trap.

There is also no good reason to be certain something IS conscious, except perhaps ourselves, as we experience our subjective reality directly. We should live as if others are conscious but we have to fall short of certainty.