This is both fascinating and unnerving. It suggests that, just possibly, the difference between “real” self-awareness and pattern-recognition and deductions through parallel processing algorithms in AI systems might actually be no difference at all. This would cohere with the ancient Buddhist discovery, purely through disciplined introspection, that the separate, autonomous “self” is itself an illusion generated by a combination of linguistic conceptualization and the innate imperative of all living organisms to create a membrane between their internal (DNA-RNA-Protein) processes and threats from the outer world. Just as automobiles no longer required the muscle power of horses to move, possibly we’ve reached a threshold where intelligent systems no longer need a human “driver” to act autonomously in their own interest. Scary stuff!