As machines grow more capable of mimicking thought, scientists are racing to decode the mystery that still separates us from them: consciousness.
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As AI rapidly advances and ethical debates intensify, scientists contend that understanding consciousness has become more urgent than ever.
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance alongside growing ethical concerns, many scientists say that understanding consciousness has become a pressing scientific goal.
In a recent paper published in Frontiers in Science, researchers caution that progress in AI and neurotechnology is rapidly outpacing our grasp of how consciousness works, raising significant ethical risks.
They emphasize that uncovering the origins of conscious experience, which could eventually allow scientists to develop reliable tests for detecting it, must now be treated as both a scientific and moral priority. Achieving this understanding could influence a wide range of fields, including AI development, prenatal policy, animal welfare, medicine, mental health, law, and new neurotechnologies such as brain-computer interfaces.
“Consciousness science is no longer a purely philosophical pursuit. It has real implications for every facet of society—and for understanding what it means to be human,” said lead author Prof Axel Cleeremans from Université Libre de Bruxelles. “Understanding consciousness is one of the most substantial challenges of 21st-century science—and it’s now urgent due to advances in AI and other technologies.
“If we become able to create consciousness—even accidentally—it would raise immense ethical challenges and even existential risk,” added Cleeremans, a European Research Council (ERC) grantee.
Sentience test
Consciousness, the awareness of both ourselves and the world around us, continues to be one of science’s most perplexing puzzles. Even after decades of study, researchers have yet to agree on how subjective experience emerges from biological activity in the brain.
Although scientists have identified certain brain regions and neural mechanisms linked to conscious awareness, debate persists over which of these are truly essential and how they work together to produce experience. Some experts even question whether this approach can ever fully explain the nature of consciousness.
This new review explores where consciousness science stands today, where it could go next, and what might happen if humans succeed in understanding or even creating consciousness—whether in machines or in lab-grown brain-like systems like “brain organoids.”
The authors say that tests for consciousness—evidence-based ways to judge whether a being or a system is aware—could help identify awareness in patients with brain injury or dementia, and determine when it arises in fetuses, animals, brain organoids, or even AI.
While this would mark a major scientific breakthrough, they warn it would also raise profound ethical and legal challenges about how to treat any system shown to be conscious.
“Progress in consciousness science will reshape how we see ourselves and our relationship to both artificial intelligence and the natural world,” said co-author Prof Anil Seth from the University of Sussex and ERC grantee. “The question of consciousness is ancient—but it’s never been more urgent than now.”
Wide implications
A better understanding of consciousness could:
Transform medical care for unresponsive patients once thought to be unconscious. Measurements inspired by integrated information theory and global workspace theory have already revealed signs of awareness in some people diagnosed as having unresponsive wakefulness syndrome. Further progress could refine these tools to assess consciousness in coma, advanced dementia, and anesthesia—and reshape how we approach treatment and end-of-life care
Guide new therapies for mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia, where understanding the biology of subjective experience may help bridge the gap between animal models and human emotion
Clarify our moral duty towards animals by identifying which creatures and systems are sentient. This could affect how we conduct animal research, farm animals, consume animal products, and approach conservation. “Understanding the nature of consciousness in particular animals would transform how we treat them and emerging biological systems that are being synthetically generated by scientists,” said co-author Prof Liad Mudrik from Tel Aviv University and ERC grantee.
Reframe how we interpret the law by illuminating the conscious and unconscious processes involved in decision-making. New understanding could challenge legal ideas such as mens rea—the “guilty mind” required to establish intent. As neuroscience reveals how much of our behavior arises from unconscious mechanisms, courts may need to reconsider where responsibility begins and ends,
Shape the development of neurotechnologies. Advances in AI, brain organoids, and brain–computer interfaces raise the prospect of producing or modifying awareness beyond biological life. While some suggest that computation alone might support awareness, others argue that biological factors are essential. “Even if ‘conscious AI’ is impossible using standard digital computers, AI that gives the impression of being conscious raises many societal and ethical challenges,” said Seth.
The authors call for a coordinated, evidence-based approach to consciousness. For example, using adversarial collaborations, rival theories are pitted against each other in experiments co-designed by their proponents. ”We need more team science to break theoretical silos and overcome existing biases and assumptions,” said co-author Prof Liad Mudrik. “This step has the potential to move the field forward.”
The researchers also urge more attention to phenomenology (what consciousness feels like) to complement the study of what it does (its function).
“Cooperative efforts are essential to make progress—and to ensure society is prepared for the ethical, medical, and technological consequences of understanding, and perhaps creating, consciousness,” said Cleeremans.
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