There are quite a lot of options out at the extremes and both ends seem to presuppose things about consciousness that even specialist's in the field have debated for years.
I'm ok with thinking it's possible that some subset of consciousness might exist in LLMs while also being well aware of their limitations. Cognitive science has plenty of examples of mental impairments that show that there are individuals that lack some of the things that LLMs also lack that. We would hardly deny those individuals are conscious. The distinction for what is thought is lower but no less complex.
Before we had machines pushing at these boundaries, there were very learned people debating these issues, but it seems like now some gut instincts from people who have chatted to a bot for a bit are carrying the day.
I'm ok with thinking it's possible that some subset of consciousness might exist in LLMs while also being well aware of their limitations. Cognitive science has plenty of examples of mental impairments that show that there are individuals that lack some of the things that LLMs also lack that. We would hardly deny those individuals are conscious. The distinction for what is thought is lower but no less complex.
Before we had machines pushing at these boundaries, there were very learned people debating these issues, but it seems like now some gut instincts from people who have chatted to a bot for a bit are carrying the day.