Artificial Consciousness as Interface Representation
Artificial General Intelligence 2026 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-00800-8_12 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Conscious ai Interface theory Slp-tests Category theory |
| Key points | Proposes that consciousness-like properties in AI can be assessed through three SLP-tests that operationalize subjective experience as a functional interface rather than an intrinsic property. |
Abstract
Whether artificial intelligence (AI) systems can possess consciousness is a contentious question because of the inherent challenges of defining and operationalizing subjective experience. This paper proposes a framework to reframe the question of artificial consciousness into empirically tractable tests. We introduce three evaluative criteria – S (subjective-linguistic), L (latent-emergent), and P (phenomenological-structural) – collectively termed SLP-tests, which assess whether an AI system instantiates interface representations that facilitate consciousness-like properties. Drawing on category theory, we model interface representations as mappings between relational substrates (RS) and observable behaviors, akin to specific types of abstraction layers. The SLP-tests collectively operationalize subjective experience not as an intrinsic property of physical systems but as a functional interface to a relational entity.
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Citations in the library
Cites 12
- Consciousness in the universe: a review of the 'Orch OR' theory. March 1, 2014
- A landscape of consciousness: Toward a taxonomy of explanations and implications. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology August 1, 2024
- Explanatory profiles of models of consciousness - towards a systematic classification. Neuroscience of Consciousness August 27, 2021
- Testing the Conjecture That Quantum Processes Create Conscious Experience. Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) May 28, 2024
- Category theory in consciousness science: going beyond the correlational project Synthese August 1, 2024
and 7 more in the library