If consciousness is dynamically relevant, artificial intelligence isn't conscious
This addresses the philosophical and technical problem of AI consciousness for researchers in AI and cognitive science, but it is incremental as it builds on existing debates.
The paper argues that if consciousness influences a system's temporal evolution, then AI systems cannot be conscious because their hardware is designed to prevent such deviations.
We demonstrate that if consciousness is relevant for the temporal evolution of a system's states--that is, if it is dynamically relevant--then AI systems cannot be conscious. That is because AI systems run on CPUs, GPUs, TPUs or other processors which have been designed and verified to adhere to computational dynamics that systematically preclude or suppress deviations. The design and verification preclude or suppress, in particular, potential consciousness-related dynamical effects, so that if consciousness is dynamically relevant, AI systems cannot be conscious.