Human beings have consciousness. Right from the first development of AI in 1955, scientists were concerned how machines can solve problems at present reserved for humans and improve themselves in the process. In short the advanced capacities of the brain must be invested in the machines — language, abstract thinking and creativity. Consciousness is central to all these capacities. In other words, machines with such capacities could be conscious robots.

It is necessary to formulate a functional definition of consciousness, steering clear of all philosophical verbiage. Conscious has to be reduced to a certain process. The more we research on brain and the CNS, the less fuzzy the concept of consciousness will become. It is time to put a variety of functional theories of consciousness.

Dr. Hod Lispon, a mechanical engineer by training, directs the Creative Machine Lab at Columbia University. He and his colleagues are in sync with this theory of consciousness. He singled out a practical criterion for consciousness — the ability to imagine yourself in the future.

Human consciousness is different from animal consciousness. How far in future an entity is able to imagine itself is the crux of the matter. Consciousness is continuum. At one end of this continuum is the organism that has a sense of where it is in this world. This is a primitive sense of self-awareness. Beyond that, one can imagine where your body will be in future. Beyond that , in other words, is the ability to imagine what you might ultimately imagine.

Machines with consciousness must understand what they are and what they think. Dr. Lispon is working on a cockroach version of consciousness right now. Further we are led to emotions and other things.

A stand taken on consciousness enables us to make further technological advancements.

A robot that emerged from Creative Lab which is self-aware has four hinged legs and a black body. It has sensors attached at different points. It moves around. The information entering sensors changes. The robot creates a stick figure simulation of itself. As the robot continues to move, it uses an ML algorithm to improve alignment between its self-model and its actual body. Thus it uses a self-image to figure out, a method of moving forward in simulation. In other words, when it applies this method, it deciphers how to walk without being shown how to walk. Its a major advance.

Machines can be created which could recognise that something is wrong with their hardware. They could change their behaviour to compensate for the impairment in the hardware. Here they would not be assisted by the programmers. To illustrate from the live animals, a dog with an injured leg knows how to walk differently to overcome the injury. It is an in-built adaptability. Robots too must be resilient. Dr.Lispon studied whether this could be replicated. This kind of natural selection. Of course, in a code. That kind of intelligence, if possible to create, could be fast and flexible.

With advances in ML, this goal seems to be realisable.

Dr. Lispon says that if we can create a machine that will have consciousness on par with humans, it will eclipse everything we have done.

Robotic consciousness is artificial consciousness or synthetic consciousness. It refers to non-biological, human created machine that is aware of its own existence. Such a machine, when created, will profoundly affect our comprehension of what we call being alive.

AI that is self-aware is AI where machines are aware of themselves and perceive their internal states and emotions of others, perceive behaviours and acumen. There are consequences of AI becoming more sentient than humans. AI, so far, is based on logic. People have feelings and emotions. Computers do not have them.