  As artificially intelligent systems become more anthropomorphic and
pervasive, and their potential impact on humanity more urgent, discussions
about the possibility of machine consciousness have significantly intensified,
and it is sometimes seen as 'the holy grail'. Many concerns have been voiced
about the ramifications of creating an artificial conscious entity. This is
compounded by a marked lack of consensus around what constitutes consciousness
and by an absence of a universal set of criteria for determining consciousness.
By going into depth on the foundations and characteristics of consciousness, we
propose five criteria for determining whether a machine is conscious, which can
also be applied more generally to any entity. This paper aims to serve as a
primer and stepping stone for researchers of consciousness, be they in
philosophy, computer science, medicine, or any other field, to further pursue
this holy grail of philosophy, neuroscience and artificial intelligence.
