IDA, a Conscious Artifact?

After discussing various types of consciousness, several approaches to machine consciousness, software agent, and global workspace theory, we describe a software agent, IDA, that is “conscious” in the sense of implementing that theory of consciousness. IDA perceives, remembers, deliberates, negotiates, and selects actions, sometimes “consciously.” She uses a variety of mechanisms, each of which is briefly described. It’s tempting to think of her as a conscious artifact. Is such a view in any way justified? The remainder of the paper considers this question.

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