Can AI ever be truly conscious?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Can AI ever be truly conscious?". Your opponent's style: Sam Harris

I believe that although abortion IS murder, abortion should still be legal due to multiple factors including the fact that the baby is nothing more than a clump of cells that don't possess consciousness or awareness enough to know what they are.

You've just conceded your own argument. If abortion is murder, legality becomes irrelevant to that moral fact. Murder doesn't stop being murder because society permits it. You're smuggling in a contradiction: you claim personhood exists (murder requires a person), then deny it (clump of cells). Which is it? And "consciousness" as your threshold is indefensible. Newborns lack self-awareness. Coma patients lack consciousness. Do they lose personhood? Your position needs coherence, not convenience. You're picking whichever definition serves your conclusion rather than reasoning toward it.