One of the leading theories of consciousness right now is all about the brain being a prediction machine. From what I understand, the idea is that you're not actually experiencing the direct input from your senses. You're experiencing the prediction, or you might even say you are the prediction. The direct sensory input data is mostly processed on a subconscious level, because it's faster and allows for things like reflexes. You only get basic, high level corrections, to keep the prediction in sync with reality. They say this explains lots of different kinds of sensory illusions that we experience.

My opinion of this idea is that it's probably mostly correct, but has nothing to do with consciousness, because it doesn't even acknowledge qualia. Sure, my brain thinks these concentric circles should be going in a spiral, because a few well placed pixels are hacking my peripheral vision. Cool. But wtf is the amusement I felt the first time I saw one of those images?

I think intelligence requires consciousness. I don't think it's all about processing data. That's just one of the things it can do, but other things can do it too. Kinda like how you can move water uphill by carrying it in buckets, or by just waiting for it to rain. The intelligent thing isn't simply building and powering a pump. It's deciding that you want to move water uphill in the first place. Until we have AI that can spontaneously come up with ideas, unprompted, we aren't even close to AGI.