Memory - in my opinion - is not something that's inherent to consciousness. Rather, it is just another input that can be used by the computation. I don't think

Memory - in my opinion - is not something that's inherent to consciousness. Rather, it is just another input that can be used by the computation. I don't think I came up with my own definition here. What I am talking about is the ability to have a qualitative experience. That it feels like something to exist. I concur that the experience of an AI would substantially differ from ours (e.g. because we have access to memory). But this fact alone can't free us from thinking about ethical implications of our actions. Many animals probably have a substantially different experience as well. Yet, I would argue, we should strive to minimize imparting suffering on them if they are able to experience it.