Is Dialogue with a Technosubject Possible? Architectures of Artificial Intelligence and Signatures of Consciousness
Russian Journal of Philosophical Sciences June 15, 2025 Arseniy V. Nedyak
Consciousness may be characterized by functional signatures such as a global workspace, recurrent processing, metacognitive monitoring, predictive processing, and high-level information integration. Current AI systems exhibit some of these properties but in a fragmented, poorly integrated manner. Emerging hybrid neurosymbolic architectures, neuroevolutionary approaches, and embodied robotics are moving toward systems that more closely approximate conscious cognitive functions. However, genuine dialogue with a potentially conscious technosubject would require intersubjectivity, empathy, mutual ethical responsibility, and lived bodily and social experience—or functional analogues—that go beyond mere simulation. The near-term possibility of artificial general intelligence (AGI) demands proactive discussion of the technosubject's normative status and development of ethical principles and regulatory mechanisms.