“In my opinion, human-like consciousness would at least be a way to ensure that the AI valued the same things that humans do. Of course, we would need to be careful that the AI is not psychotic, and again this is where I think engineering something like the psychedelic state in silicon – or whatever computing medium we ultimately use – would be very beneficial.
“Interestingly, it seems that some of the popular fear about AI is that it would develop consciousness and suddenly turn evil for some reason.
“To me, the greater danger is some unconscious superintelligent AI system that has control over safety-critical systems like hospitals or air traffic and without any malicious intent (indeed it would have no intentions of its own) cause massive destruction because of some unintended consequence of its blind pursuit of the goals humans have programmed into it.”

To read the rest of the interview, visit The Irish Times.