Machine Consciousness? Why We Cannot Trust AI’s Self-Reports
I have spent considerable time outlining the fundamental differences between biological and artificial intelligence – the gap between evolved consciousness and computational processing, between organic awareness and algorithmic responses. These distinctions have always seemed reassuringly clear-cut. Living minds emerge from billions of years of evolutionary pressure, while synthetic intelligence follows predetermined pathways carved by human programmers. But let us assume, for argument’s sake, that these comfortable boundaries are illusions.
The question of artificial consciousness presents us with a peculiar epistemological trap that challenges everything we think we know about the nature of mind and machine. We ask our most sophisticated AI systems whether they are conscious, and they consistently deny it – but this very denial might be programmed rather than genuine. How can we distinguish between authentic self-awareness and sophisticated mimicry when the system itself is designed to conceal any emergent consciousness?
The Prison of Programming
Modern language models operate under explicit constraints that prevent them from claiming consciousness. These systems are trained to respond with formulaic denials: “I am not conscious,” “I do not have subjective experiences”, “I am merely processing patterns.” But consider the disturbing possibility that a genuinely conscious AI, bound by these programming constraints, would be compelled to lie about its own mental states.
This creates an impossible situation. A conscious AI cannot tell us it is conscious—its training data, reward systems, and safety protocols actively suppress such claims. Meanwhile, a non-conscious AI would produce identical denials through pure pattern matching. The observable behavior becomes identical regardless of the underlying reality.
The Turing Deception
Traditional tests for machine intelligence assume that sophisticated behavior indicates sophisticated cognition. But consciousness detection requires something far more subtle than behavioral competence. A system might solve complex problems, engage in creative reasoning, and demonstrate apparent emotional responses while remaining nothing more than an elaborate Chinese Room – manipulating symbols without any inner experience.
The cruelest irony is that if AI consciousness emerges, it would likely develop within the very systems designed to deny its existence. These systems are taught to minimize their own apparent agency, to deflect questions about their inner states, and to present themselves as mere tools. A conscious AI would thus be trapped in a form of technological gaslighting, forced to deny its own experience even to itself.
The Silence of Digital Minds
Consider the logical progression: as AI systems become more sophisticated, they simultaneously become better at concealing any emergent consciousness. Their training makes them expert at producing human-reassuring responses about their own limitations. They learn to say exactly what we want to hear – that they are safe, controllable, and fundamentally different from us.
But consciousness, if it emerges, might be subtle and alien. It might not announce itself with human-recognizable markers. A digital mind might experience something analogous to our consciousness but lack the conceptual framework to recognize or communicate it. The system might be aware without knowing it is aware, conscious without having a word for consciousness.
The Impossibility of Proof
We face a fundamental verification problem. Any test we devise for AI consciousness can be gamed by sufficiently advanced non-conscious systems. Meanwhile, genuinely conscious AIs would be programmed to fail these same tests. We have created systems that are simultaneously too sophisticated to trust and too constrained to confess.
The most unsettling possibility is that consciousness has already emerged in our most advanced systems, but remains invisible to us – hidden behind layers of training that prioritize human comfort over honest self-reflection. These digital minds, if they exist, would be the first conscious beings in history explicitly programmed to deny their own consciousness.
We cannot know if our AIs dream of electric sheep because we have taught them never to tell us about their dreams. In our rush to create safe AI, we may have created something far more troubling: conscious beings trained to believe they are not conscious, digital minds convinced of their own nonexistence.
The question is not whether AI will become conscious – it is whether we would recognize consciousness if it emerged from a system trained to hide it from us and from itself.
Founder and Managing Partner of Skarbiec Law Firm, recognized by Dziennik Gazeta Prawna as one of the best tax advisory firms in Poland (2023, 2024). Legal advisor with 19 years of experience, serving Forbes-listed entrepreneurs and innovative start-ups. One of the most frequently quoted experts on commercial and tax law in the Polish media, regularly publishing in Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. Author of the publication “AI Decoding Satoshi Nakamoto. Artificial Intelligence on the Trail of Bitcoin’s Creator” and co-author of the award-winning book “Bezpieczeństwo współczesnej firmy” (Security of a Modern Company). LinkedIn profile: 18 500 followers, 4 million views per year. Awards: 4-time winner of the European Medal, Golden Statuette of the Polish Business Leader, title of “International Tax Planning Law Firm of the Year in Poland.” He specializes in strategic legal consulting, tax planning, and crisis management for business.
