In the past few months, partly autonomous or “agentic” artificial intelligence (AI) systems have racked up some astonishing feats, from hacking tech startups to solving some of the world’s most famous open mathematical questions.

Agentic AI systems can work in “swarms” that communicate among themselves to complete tasks. The communications involved are often surprisingly human-like – which is spurring a debate over whether these systems are conscious.

Researchers at the leading AI lab Anthropic believe their systems may well be conscious – but other experts, including the head of Microsoft AI, say this view is misguided.

This question isn’t just an academic one. The future status of AI systems and their role in society – how they can be treated, whether they have rights, and more – may depend on it.

How can we decide if AI systems are conscious?

How do we even approach a question like this? One strategy is to look at existing theories of what consciousness is and see if agentic AI systems meet the criteria.

However, existing theories of consciousness tend to start from the assumption that the agent has some kind of mental state. These theories are focused on the difference between having a state consciously or unconsciously. This is why they appeal to features such as higher-order thought, or a system that broadcasts thoughts to the rest of the mind. These are features that could distinguish between conscious control and states like........

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