Is Watson conscious?

Look for the power cord.

Look for the power supply.
[sigh]Edited by Tangle, : No reason given.

[deep sigh]How far do you want to go with this?Ultimately I'm going to say if it's soft, squidgy, wet and messy inside and tries to bite you when you open its lid, it's natural. Everything else is artificial so we know.That definition will work for the remainder of my natural life. After that, it's going to get properly difficult.

Yes we are. If we didn't care whether there was a difference between ourselves (natural) and something that we make (artificial), we wouldn't be having the conversation. Yes. We look inside the box. No one knows. No one even knows what consciousness is. Next question.

Not consciously.

If we care, we go have a look. If we don't.....The better question is not whether we can tell the difference it's whether it matters if we can't.

Correct. It's a highly practical problem. At some time in the nearish future machines will be in charge of our cars and a little after that it'll be our healthcare and eventually our judicial systems. It's going to matter to our descendants whether their helpmates are conscious and sentient and what form that consciousness might take.