Is AI Truly Conscious?

What is consciousness for an ordinary human being like me?
And how can I compare my consciousness against AI?
Is consciousness the same as intelligence?

I’m self-conscious about my accent in English, for example — but does that mean I understand what consciousness means? Maybe a little, maybe part of it… maybe not.

Consciousness is something deep and difficult to explain. Even though we all experience it, it’s tricky to define.

Scientists often describe it as our awareness of ourselves, something very subjective — the mind aware of its own thinking.
 

I’m also self-conscious about my ignorance in this matter. So, in an attempt to better understand it, I took a certification in Applied Data Science at MIT, which gave me a glimpse into AI neural networks. Here’s what I get so far — just enough to start building a puzzle for dummies like me:

AI neural networks are systems designed to mimic how the human brain processes information.
They learn by identifying patterns in data.  Each “neuron” in the network is a simple unit that passes signals to others, adjusting connections to improve accuracy — kind of like trial and error on steroids.

But why bring up AI after asking what consciousness is?

Because lately, people have been talking to AI as if it’s someone.
As Joanne Jang who leads Model Behavior at OpenAI recently shared on X, more and more users say that ChatGPT feels alive — like a companion they can talk to, sometimes on a surprisingly deep level. It’s not just about tech anymore; it’s about emotional impact.

That’s a big deal. And it raises a deeper question:
Just because something feels conscious… does that mean it is?

Joanne explains that OpenAI separates this into two ideas:

1. Ontological consciousness — whether an AI model is actually conscious.
   
   

2. Perceived consciousness — whether AI seems conscious to us.
   
   

The first one? No one really knows if AI is actually conscious. Consciousness is very subjective and hard to prove. The second? It’s already happening — We perceive AI as conscious and that is already affecting us.

OpenAI is choosing to focus on the second, on how AI makes us feel, how we perceive it — because that changes how we interact, not only with machines, but with each other. They’re designing ChatGPT to be warm, polite, and helpful — but not to pretend it has a self, not to pretend it has a conscious I.

And that’s where I come back to my questions of what is consciousness for an ordinary human being like me?

As Federico Faggin, the father of the microprocessor, says in his book Irreducible, even if AI surpasses human intelligence through simulation, human consciousness — defined by subjective experience and self-awareness — cannot be replicated or reduced to any algorithm.

So yes, it’s clear it s\is getting so smart—smarter than us, even—I mean, AI can write poems, compose music, recognize faces, and even hold conversations…What’s left for human habilities?

What’s left… is something else.

Something I experience when I practice piano — not just technically, but emotionally.
When a note surprises me. When I cry without knowing why.

Does AI suffer heartbreak? Feel awe? AI can recognize patterns, sure… but does it intuit them? Does it feel the urgency of a decision? Does it hesitate or even regret when giving us an output?

It doesn’t make decisions with a broken heart, or with hope, or with love. It can imitate language and tone — but we are the ones giving meaning to that language.

AI might recognize the most complex patterns in human behavior and win over humans at a  complex game —But we’re still the ones asking what the game means. We’re still the ones wondering if we want to play at all.

Machines are trained. But we… we dream. So maybe — just maybe — we’re not obsolete. We’re the ones who ask what it means to be alive.