The Nonidentity of Human Beings and Artificial Intelligence

This article seeks to make an ontological distinction, of ethical and theological importance, between artificial intelligence and human beings. It will be demonstrated that humans possess phenomenal consciousness and therefore possess selves, while artificial intelligence at most satisfies a functionalist account of consciousness and therefore does not possess a self. That human consciousness is phenomenal will be argued for by examining how subjects learn and apply abstract concepts. Moreover, it will be argued that phenomenal experience entails a self, which is not emergent. Because humans have selves and AI systems do not, AI is not identical to human beings.