I can't see how intelligence can be modeled without taking into account consciousness. Can something "think" without there being a "me" or an "I" that does the thinking? Just what do we mean by "self-awareness"?

It may very well be that a Turing Machine (a robot that behaves like a human is in charge, like HAL in 2001) can behave in a way that simulates intelligence, or at least, is indistinguishable from intelligence to an external observer. For that matter, it may very well be that even human intelligence is simply an extremly elaborate mechanistic program, which we only experience in ourselves, or perceive in others, as intelligence because we are not complex or subtle enough ourselves to recognize it as a purely mechanical process.

But will a Turing machine have a consciousness? Will it need one in order to be convincing? Is that even a valid question (i.e., do even WE have a consciouness, or is it just an epiphenomenon, a fake impression designed to make us operate as if we did?). Does that kind of question even make sense? And there are different kinds of intelligence, too. The kind of intelligence we need to ride a bicycle in heavy traffic is very different than the kind we use to play chess against multiple opponents, or to play an instrument in a symphony orchestra.

There is a lot more to intelligence than simply making comparisons and contrasts, decisions and categorizations, and manipulating programming structures like IFs and DOs around lists and nesting and subroutine calls. My guess, and it's only a guess because I don't know any more than anyone else does, is that emotion has a lot to do with it, and I think language plays an important role too.

The AI people are already in way over their heads.