The definition of a living thing is something that has the capacity to die.
Robots and artificial intelligence, as they currently exist, do not have the ability to die. This suggests that they aren't truly "alive". However, could AI develop consciousness and/or sentience? Consciousness—the awareness of one's existence—and sentience—the ability to feel and perceive—are qualities we assume belong exclusively to living beings. If (and when) AI achieves these traits, it would prove that consciousness and sentience can exist independently of life itself.
Humans are limited in their understanding of their physical and psychological selves because they can only perceive the world through their senses. For example, humans cannot directly perceive the function of their heart because they don't have sensory organs, like eyes or ears, inside their heart. However, robots aren't limited to a fixed set of parts. If we designed a robot to emulate a human, we could give it senses in places humans don't have, like a tongue inside its "heart."
And so, some neuroscientists believe that mind uploading—transferring human consciousness into a digital or robotic form—is impossible because consciousness involves more than just the brain. It is argued consciousness is a whole-body experience, relying on the conjunction of the entire body working together as an ensemble. If a robot were to develop consciousness, and if we changed or removed some of its physical parts, its consciousness might change too, so could a sentient robot could ever have a stable sense of identity? For example, if a robot had a sensor in its "heart" and that sensor was removed, the robot's consciousness could be altered.
However, if a human were to lose an arm, the brain continues to perceive the missing limb as part of the body, sometimes even causing phantom limb sensations, in the effort to stabilize its sentience. This enables a consistent consciousness and is largely why they remain the same person. Similarly, humans born without an arm can still believe the limb is present. In this sense, the loss of a physical part does not necessarily create a new consciousness or sense of self in humans, due to how the body copes and adapts to these changes. Only when the brain fully realizes the loss does a potential change in consciousness or identity occur.
If a robot were to develop consciousness and sentience, it would not be "alive" because it wouldn't have the capacity to die. However, if a robot's consciousness was dependent on its parts as is for humans, and those parts were altered or replaced; unlike humans, its consciousness could be altered. Therefore, even if AI were to attain consciousness and/or sentience, it would force us to confront an entirely new paradigm of conscious and sentient phenomena.
Dorsa Rohani