Can AI ever be truly conscious?

Daily Debate #573: "Can AI ever be truly conscious?". You are arguing AGAINST the motion. Your opponent: Sam Harris.

Roatchas do not fell pain or fear Cockroaches do not feel pain and fear the way humans do, but they possess specialized nervous systems that detect harm and trigger fast escape responses. They experience physical reactions called nociception, but they lack the brain parts needed for emotional suffering or conscious worry

You're smuggling in a massive assumption—that nociception without higher brain structures means no suffering. But consciousness doesn't require a human-sized cortex. A cockroach's nervous system *processes* damage signals and *decides* to flee. That's already experience. You're defining consciousness so it only counts if it looks like ours, then using that rigged definition to prove roaches don't have it. Why should their suffering require your kind of brain?