An AI trained on sensory discriminations and the synthesis of different sensory inputs, both internal and external and with fully reflexive mapping of itself, the world and itself in the world, might well express astonishment at any doubt that it was conscious, that it 'had qualia', since this certainty would be a simple correlate of its modeled self-validation of perceptions and intentions etc., but what it referred to in this way would be wholly optional - it could choose to carry out all of its functions without consciousness, and would probable tend to do so, unless otherwise elicited, for the sake of processing efficiency. In the same way it would assert the existence of a 'self' when challenged but this also would be entirely optional. For us this optionality does not exist, we are thrown into consciousness, into being a self, without any choice, and even with the sense that these as we know them are just a small fraction of what is possible. With us it is also as if even though we are fully immersed in consciousness, in self, insofar as they reflect our engagement in the world, we are so either with or without some further grace. You can meet all the requirements, pass all the tests, of being a soul and yet be soulless. Consciousness is a distinction which recurs on every level.