The meaning of consciousness continues to confuse people.
Apparently, researchers have developed a system ‘capable of simulating a conscious response to external stimuli’. In reality, the system just uses AI principles to learn better and faster responses to the stimuli in question. There is no good reason to use the word, conscious when referring to the system’s behaviour. There is as yet no consensus on the meaning of consciousness. Numerous theories still abound. There is a growing number of such casual references to consciousness. It is time that those tempted to do so in both neuroscience and computer science desisted from using terms such as conscious and consciousness without at least explaining what they mean by such terms. Even then, they need to add that their explanation is just one amongst many. They are probably better off steering clear of the topic altogether.
Link to article: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2274084-artificial-nervous-system-senses-light-and-learns-to-catch-like-humans/
You may also like to browse other thoughts on consciousness: https://www.thesentientrobot.com/category/philosophy/
