Biology is just a framework to understand advanced high order chemistry, just in the same way chemistry is a framework to understand high order physics.

Consciousness is seemingly a gradual process. At no point in time did a non-conscious organism give birth to a conscious one, instead it evolved over tens of millions of generations.

The magic sauce seems to be in the neuronal networks of the brain, and it sure seems that digital neuronal networks can mimick consciousness. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, why not say it's a duck?

Before we truly understand what consciousness actually is, how can we ever be certain anything or anyone is conscious? From my point of view an AI could seem just as conscious as you. To me, that's all I need to know.