Comment by TheAceOfHearts

> Do you believe that AI systems could be conscious in principle?

Yes.

> Do you think they ever will be?

Yes.

> how long do you think it will take from now before they are conscious?

Timelines are unclear, there's still too many missing components, at least based on what has been publicly disclosed. Consciousness will probably be defined as a system which matches a set of rules, whenever we figure out what how that set of rules is defined.

> How early is too early to start preparing?

It's one of those "I know it when I see it" things. But it's probably too early as long as these systems are spun up for one-off conversations rather than running in a continuous loop with self-persistence. This seems closer to "worried about NPC welfare in video games" rather than "worried about semi-conscious entities".