No, Richard Dawkins. AI is not conscious

[Blue Full Moon]

4. Desperate to claim AI is people just like they got corporations are people. Needs nipped in the bud

Donald Hoffman argues that artificial intelligence cannot possess genuine consciousness because computation alone cannot create it. In his view, consciousness is a fundamental, unreduced aspect of reality, while space, time, and physical objects—including the computer chips running AI—are mere "icons" in our perceptual interface.Hoffman's Theory of Conscious AgentsCognitive scientist and MIT Ph.D. Donald Hoffman challenges the traditional physicalist view that consciousness emerges from complex neural activity.Consciousness is Fundamental: He asserts that the universe is actually a vast social network of interacting "conscious agents", and that spacetime and physical matter depend on consciousness for their existence.