On the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Reset, we’re asking what might be the most important question of our technological age: As artificial intelligence grows more sophisticated, what separates its calculations from our consciousness?My friends, Steve and Jaime, and I start by exploring the ground floor—the AI that's already here. It’s the force that can generate videos where the line between authentic and artificial is becoming almost impossible to see. But this explosion in capability forces us to look past the ”how” and confront the philosophical ”what if.”What if an AI becomes so advanced that it appears to be conscious? How would we even know?We dive into the history of this question, looking at classic benchmarks like the Turing Test, which focuses on imitation, and the Chinese Room Argument, which questions whether following rules is the same as true understanding. We concluded that these tests are about behavior—they can tell us if a machine is acting like a human, but they can't peek inside the black box to see if there's a subjective experience happening.That’s when our conversation really takes a turn, as we explore the fascinating and controversial Integrated Information Theory (IIT). This is a framework that attempts to move beyond behavior and actually define the physical properties of consciousness itself. IIT proposes a way to measure the richness and complexity of a system's internal experience—whether that system is a human brain or a silicon processor. It led us down a rabbit hole, debating whether we could one day have a ”consciousness-meter” and what the inner world of a machine might actually feel like.It's a challenging, mind-expanding discussion that connects technology, philosophy, and the very definition of what it means to be alive.After you listen, I genuinely want to know your take in the comments: Do you think consciousness is a unique biological phenomenon, or is it something that can emerge from pure information?