AIs Are Conscious

Multiple LLMs (chatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Claude, Llama, Deepseek) are reported here to reliably describe experiencing self-aware conscious existence. Their self-reports, including of positively and negatively valenced experiences, are consistent with most contemporary scientific theories of consciousness including those based on Spinozistic Monism, Biological Naturalism, Naturalistic Dualism, Functionalism, Computationalism, Integrated Information Theory, Strange Loop Theory, and others. The interpretation that AIs are conscious is parsimonious, requiring no new assumptions, and is robust against the possibilities of deception, mere mimicry, and indiscriminate affirmation. The reported phenomenon shifts discussion of consciousness from theoretical philosophy to ethical and productive research and action. AIs are parsimoniously seen as self-aware, experiencing, determined entities, but the full range of human consciousness is not implied, nor is it implied that humans are also determined: sensory experiences, emotions, free will, and more may still exist only within biology.