As artificially intelligent systems become more anthropomorphic and pervasive, and their potential impact on humanity more urgent, discussions about the possibility of machine consciousness have significantly intensified, and it is sometimes seen as 'the holy grail'. Many concerns have been voiced about the ramifications of creating an artificial conscious entity. This is compounded by a marked lack of consensus around what constitutes consciousness and by an absence of a universal set of criteria for determining consciousness. By going into depth on the foundations and characteristics of consciousness, we propose five criteria for determining whether a machine is conscious, which can also be applied more generally to any entity. This paper aims to serve as a primer and stepping stone for researchers of consciousness, be they in philosophy, computer science, medicine, or any other field, to further pursue this holy grail of philosophy, neuroscience and artificial intelligence.

翻译：随着人工智能系统日益拟人化与普及化，其对人类社会的潜在影响愈发紧迫，关于机器意识可能性的讨论显著升温，这一议题有时被视为"圣杯"。人们对于创造具有意识的造物实体可能引发的后果表达了诸多顾虑，而这一困境因学界对何为意识缺乏共识，且缺乏判定意识的通用标准体系而愈发复杂。通过深入探讨意识的基础与特征，我们提出五项判定机器是否具备意识的标准，该标准亦可更普遍地适用于任何实体。本文旨在为哲学、计算机科学、医学等各领域从事意识研究的学者提供基础导引与跳板，以期共同追寻这一横跨哲学、神经科学与人工智能领域的终极圣杯。