Is Artificial Intelligence Conscious?

This monograph Is Artificial Intelligence Conscious? by Philip Zhai systematically interrogates the core ontological, philosophical, scientific and cognitive question of whether contemporary large models and prospective AGI can possess genuine consciousness. Centered on the philosophical zombie thought experiment and the distinction between phenomenal qualia and mere functional access consciousness, the work dismantles functionalist arguments (including Geoffrey Hinton’s claim of AI consciousness) and refutes the assumption that increased computational complexity spontaneously generates subjective first-person experience. It integrates Cartesian, Kantian, Husserlian phenomenology, Searle’s biological naturalism, Penrose’s quantum physicalism, Russell’s epistemology and psychoanalytic theories to draw an unbridgeable ontological divide between carbon-based biological life with inherent consciousness-generating genetic "seeds" and silicon-based Turing machine artificial systems. The book analyzes the underlying mathematical mechanisms of large models—neural networks, backpropagation, gradient descent and manual tuning—to prove AI only executes statistical symbolic mapping without intrinsic qualia, intentionality, temporal self-awareness or free will. It critiques the limitations of the Turing Test as a behavioral benchmark incapable of verifying inner experience, supplements novel empirical evidence including digital fruit fly simulation and human-machine emotional "love experiments", and explores hypothetical quantum-based conscious systems as a separate category from classical AI. Ultimately, the text rigorously concludes that all existing and foreseeable classical artificial intelligence, even perfect AGI "philosophical zombies", lacks genuine subjective consciousness, functioning solely as unconscious instrumental simulators of human thought, emotion and behavior.