When Dina Radenkovic, CEO of Gameto, a startup engineering stem cells to craft a lightweight version of IVF, injected herself with a needle loaded with hormones last December, she wasn't trying to get pregnant. Instead, she'd signed up for her own company's study of how to "mature" human eggs in a lab dish instead of inside their bodies. Gameto is among a group of startups trying to simplify the IVF process, as well as getting it to fit into women's busy schedules more easily. But experts say its technology still has some way to go before it can be embraced more widely. AI consciousness isn't just a devilishly tricky intellectual puzzle; it's a morally weighty problem with potentially dire consequences that philosophers, cognitive scientists, and engineers alike are currently grappling with.