While some experts will nominate a few other species, it is possible that humans are the only beings on Earth with consciousness, and that, of course, is something we will look for (or fear) in a general artificial intelligence. It won’t happen from LLMs, although it might try telling us it is conscious.
Where we first became radically different from other species and other apes is being able to anticipate the future. One paper shows this diagram, suggesting the three components required:
And a key part of all that is episodic memory. Studies have shown that people with memory loss have difficulties formulating futures.
While many animals have great memories, ours seems to go beyond functional needs. Possibly we just have excess storage capacity so we fill it up.
A conscious AI will need to have experiences. And remember them. That is the first step. And it means being out and about in the world and interacting.