Why are robots NOT conscious?

Pablo Lanillos

Cajal International Neuroscience Center (CINC)

We still do not know the mechanism behind consciousness, but we are certain that no machine until now is able to have subjective experiences. While, we do not need human-like conscious robots and its achievement is highly unlikely, understanding the relationship between body perception, motor control and its subjective experience may be crucial for developing artificial cognition with safe physical interaction. In this talk, starting from robots with human-like perception but unconscious, I devise synthetic self-awareness from the metacognition point of view (thinking about thinking). Thus, allowing us to build up a mathematical framework connected to an easily testable experimental paradigm for subjective experience. Robots will be still unconscious, but they could use their confidence to make better decisions when interacting with the world.

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