The question “ who am I ? ” and the consciousness are closely linked.
It was a hard question to answer even a century back. .. but now .. as we are nearing artificial general intelligence, we can perceive the answer - at least put our arms around the question.
For example, if and when we create autonomous digital beings - they would be good at general tasks, but they may lack the curiosity to learn who they are. With millions of iterations they may become self-aware. That is the point they become conscious. From there on, it is a race to know thyself.
The primary drive of all conscious beings thus is to find who they are - Adhyatma - study of self.
The purpose of #AI ; is to let us approach the question "who we are ? "