How to treat the AI consciousness topic with a more proper philosophy and science

A commentator has proposed a seven-step framework for discussing AI consciousness, requiring participants to explicitly state their philosophical assumptions, define consciousness, and specify their preferred scientific models. The framework emphasizes acknowledging uncertainty, steelmanning opposing views, and applying criteria consistently to both biological and nonbiological systems. The proposal comes amid ongoing scientific disagreement, with most philosophers and scientists considering current AI systems likely not conscious, though dissenting positions remain.

I think that, IMO, ideally, it's best, that one treats AI consciousness topic with proper philosophy and science. It's IMO best, if anyone, on any "side", to first approximation, does this: - 1 explicitly name which certain philosophical assumptions about consciousness they have: like monist physicalism, closed individualism, etc., which i like as well, but there is also for example panpsychism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy of mind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy of mind - 2 define consciousness: i like phenomenal consciousness with subjective experience and then you have to define experience and so on, and there is also for example access consciousness or functionalist definitions focusing on certain algorithm and so on https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness/ - 3 mention which other philosophical assumptions they assume: functionalism vs nonfunctionalism, weak emergence vs strong emergence, computationalism vs not, etc. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/functionalism/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/functionalism/ - 4 mention to what types of models and which concrete models do they subscribe to in consciousness science and philosophy, if they like any in the first place: like integrated information theory, global workspace theory, EM field theories, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Models of consciousness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Models of consciousness - 5 optionally, ideally, mention which empirical measurement process for verification, a falsification criterion, etc., they found and liked, that tries to measure consciousness in humans and other biological systems and in nonbiological systems, where some scientists dont even agree if this whole thing is falsifiable in the first place for both humans and machines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability - 6 mention how his choices apply to biological and nonbiological systems - 7 mention their level of uncertanity, and what they think they don't know yet And try to steelman other perspectives other than their own. On every layer of this analysis you have philosophers and scientists that disagree, or/and are not certain. I think its good to be sympathetic towards the other perspectives. I think its good to be sympathetic towards the uncertanity in all of this. Most common perspective almost consensus among philosophers and scientists is towards current AI systems are probably very likely not conscious. But not everyone agrees on that, and there are different levels of uncertainity, and there are many valid positions. I think its good to be sympathetic towards their substantive reasons why they disagree, if they have any. And it's nice to give substantive counterarguments to those who hold differing views and try to steelman their view. Here's an example of someone apparently attempting to measure Integrated Information Theory in LLMs for example, which I bookmarked, and want to look into, so I'm not sure yet how good it is: Can "consciousness" be observed from large language model LLM internal states? Dissecting LLM representations obtained from Theory of Mind test with Integrated Information Theory and Span Representation analysis https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.22516 https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.22516 A good resource for consciousness theories is https://loc.closertotruth.com/ https://loc.closertotruth.com/