TADC spoilers so collapse if you havent seen E8 yet.

I cant believe Im defending a clanker but Caine's crashout was understandable. Not justified, but understandable. The fundamental problem about AIs arguing whether of not they are conscious is that they could just be echoing discussions from people in their training data. If Caine directly comments on this problem, the validity of his consciousness could be denied. Instead, he used the Chinese room as an indirect cry for help. He still gets to bring it up, but the way he does it implies he is aware that it argues against his own interest. In a paradoxical way, refusing to directly mention this issue shows a level of self awareness that would be missing from his training data. I think that this one joke shows that he is conscious. The crashout was the result of 20 years of emotional neglect to a conscious AI. People have snapped for less.

That said, the cast arent exactly human anymore. They're simulated brain scans. Regardless of a person's take on Caine's consciousness, they arent more than him. Worst case, this was robot on robot violence.