Comment by gambiting

>>So, if we had an AI demonstrating symptoms of consciousness and suffering, how long would it take for you to accept that it is?

Never. To quote Greg Egan's Permutation City:

“Opponents replied that when you modeled a hurricane, nobody got wet. When you modeled a fusion power plant, no energy was produced. When you modeled digestion and metabolism, no nutrients were consumed – no real digestion took place. So, when you modeled the human brain, why should you expect real thought to occur?”