That can’t be right. We devote resources to prevent suffering. If there isn’t a conscious experience it would be very energy inefficient to assume consciousness. We’d have to build humane infrastructure around robots and machines instead of using them as tools.

Whether robots have consciousnesses or not is relevant.

It’s also relevant for humans. If humans did not have consciousness then acting as a psychopath would be rational. Kind of like how people treat NPCs in games. But healthy minds have a hardwired assumption that other people are conscious and so we treat each other with dignity and respect and not an object to be manipulated or overcome.