I love the way you word your thoughts!
This idea that consciousness doesn't exist is becoming very popular! It reminds me of the logical positivists, who swept every question they disliked under the rag by claiming "this statement is (literally) meaningless". Problem solved. Next question.
It's funny how I'm having the exact same discussion on another post. So I'll again just quote my response:
I'm aware of all the ways our minds trick us, but that's a different question. There is one thing about which it's impossible to be wrong - the one thing in the world we're certain about - and that's that we exist. That's what Descartes proved with his famous line (there's a whole passage and a whole book wrapped around that single line), even though it's fashionable sometimes now to challenge it, but really no one could ever prove him wrong without contradicting themselves. I could be a brain in a vat, you could be a robot, this could all be happening in my mind or in a dream, I could have been created just a millisecond ago and all my memories could be implanted - but there's one thing I can't be wrong about: I AM. (And by that, we mean consciousness, we mean our qualia to use the philosophical term.)
It's funny how you can be so sure that things around you (like cleverbots) exist, but consciousness? No, that's an illusion!
Anyway, any further probing into this issue will just become too long.