Progress in Research on Implementing Machine Consciousness

抄録

Thus far, we have experienced three artificial intelligence (AI) booms. In the third one, we succeeded in developing AI that partially surpassed human capabilities. However, we are yet to develop AI that, like humans, can perform a series of cognitive processes. Consciousness built into devices is called machine consciousness. Related research has been conducted from two perspectives: studying machine consciousness as a tool to elucidate human consciousness and achieving the technological goal of furthering AI research with conscious AI. Herein, we survey the research conducted on machine consciousness from the second perspective. For AI to attain machine consciousness, its implementation must be evaluated. Therefore, we only surveyed attempts to implement consciousness as systems on devices. We collected research results in chronological order and found no breakthroughs that could deliver machine consciousness soon. Moreover, there is no method to evaluate whether an implemented machine consciousness system possesses consciousness, thus making it difficult to confirm the certainty of the implementation. This field of research is a new frontier. It is an exciting field with many discoveries expected in the future.