I think that quite often when people say ‘consciousness’ in contexts like this, and especially when they say ‘sentience’, they mean something more like self-awareness than phenomenal consciousness.
Probably they are also not tracking the distinction very carefully, or thinking very deeply about any of this. But still, thinking the problem is ‘will AIs become self-aware?’ is not quite as silly as thinking it is ‘will the AIs develop phenomenal consciousness?’ and I think it’s the former that causes them to say these things.
I think that quite often when people say ‘consciousness’ in contexts like this, and especially when they say ‘sentience’, they mean something more like self-awareness than phenomenal consciousness.
Probably they are also not tracking the distinction very carefully, or thinking very deeply about any of this. But still, thinking the problem is ‘will AIs become self-aware?’ is not quite as silly as thinking it is ‘will the AIs develop phenomenal consciousness?’ and I think it’s the former that causes them to say these things.