Aware means the algorithm "feels" something. Qualia is needed.
Define "feels" -- if you are talking emotion (like empathy) then many humans fail the test.
People on the Autism Spectrum tend to lack empathy -- I have scored a 4 and a 0 out of 80 on the empathy test (low means lack of empathy)
If you are talking about a quale (singular for qualia) - a proposed instance of subjective consciousness in some schools of philosophy -- how can you DISPROVE an AI has actually had a quale/qualia
Furthermore, qualia in humans can be created/destroyed in the same way one would write a program. With the proper conditioning, a human who subjectively enjoys the taste of an orange (qualia), can be operantly conditioned to 'feel' nothing when tasting an orange. -(no qualia). and vice-versa
Have they become non-conscious that they are eating an orange?
Or we take this classical thought experiment:
"Mary the color scientist knows all the physical facts about color, including every physical fact about the experience of color in other people, from the behavior a particular color is likely to elicit to the specific sequence of neurological firings that register that a color has been seen. However, she has been confined from birth to a room that is black and white, and is only allowed to observe the outside world through a black and white monitor. When she is allowed to leave the room, it must be admitted that she learns something about the color red the first time she sees it — specifically, she learns what it is like to see that color."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia
Is that not directly analogous to an AI that knows the same thing as mary about blue light, yet has only been exposed to red light, upon being exposed to blue light, and processing it through it's optical sensor -- does it not experience learning seeing blue light?
IT's all about complexity of stimulus action response.
Edited by sensei, 07 January 2018 - 05:46 PM.