One fundamental issue is whether or not conscious awareness is simply a by-product of complex intelligent systems. Those who assume that consciousness is simply a by-product or an emergent property argue as follows. In humans, a single neuron has nothing resembling intelligence. Yet in combination, billions of neurons combine to form a mind that does possess intelligence. It would appear then, that the brain is more than the sum of its parts.
Intelligence emerges with sufficient configural complexity of neurons.
So it is not inconceivable that other attributes such as consciousness, creativity and emotionality may emerge as a by-product of complex artificially intelligent systems. In general then, the idea is that consciousness is just a by-product of any sufficiently complex brain, and AI engineers need not try to isolate and recreate it specifically, it will emerge automatically as needed. If one assumes, on the other hand, that consciousness is not such a by-product, then an additional question is whether or not it is possible to computationally define, and simulate it. In other words, at some point in the enterprise of AI it becomes important to define the relationship between consciousness and intelligence. Skeptics point out that a fundamental component of consciousness is subjective phenomenal experience which may be beyond the scope of computational simulation.