Dr Sam Coleman (Herts): 'Why Consciousness is No Bar to Artificial Intelligence'

'It has often been argued that AI cannot be genuinely intelligent, i.e. cannot really think, because a machine cannot be conscious. But I will argue that when it comes to human thought, not only does most of it go on unconsciously, but consciousness is not essentially connected even with thinking that does happen to be conscious. Hence there is no bar to a mechanism that lacks consciousness having the power of thought, and so to genuine artificial intelligence.'