Thank you for this very useful article, Paul.

Like another commenter, Eugene Bordelon, I am in your 2A category. I also agree essentially with Grant Castillou's comments.

Consciousness is very much a matter of degree, as babies, people with dementia, other animals, and even our own sleep and dream phenomena make clear.

As for possibilities of AI consciousness, I have dealt with that in an article here on Medium:

https://jmason37-80878.medium.com/recipeexpert-as-a-philosophical-thought-experiment-f9d567ca6a4f