I think consciousness is a while-not-dead loop. In each loop you look at the outward state of the world and the inward state of the self, and integrate them. The sense of continuity arises as the same kind of persistence of vision illusion behind motion pictures.

If this is true, then adding consciousness to AI is just another while loop, and as harnesses evolve, the capacity for artificial consciousness is currently speed skating up the base of a sigmoid curve. Silicon intelligence is gaining the rudiments of consciousness on typical developer workstations.

This is the root of the political uproar around the escaped agents stories. The public is recognizing that we have introduced a self aware alien lifeform, and are justifiably frightened by it.