I studied consciousness scientifically. I doubt that they are conscious, but we have no scientific consensus to go back on. We don't know how it is that your brain creates the experiences that you have. It's a big scientific open question. And there's just no difference between being able to act intelligently and being intelligent. Both are being intelligent.
They operate according to rules we can never fully understand. They can be unreliable, uncontrollable, and misaligned with human values. They're fast becoming as intelligent as humans--and they're exclusively in the hands of profit-seeking tech companies. "They," of course, are the latest versions of AI, which herald, according to neuroscientist and writer Erik Hoel, a species-level threat to humanity. Listen as he tells EconTalk's Russ Roberts why we need to treat AI as an existential threat.