Some scientists try to argue that philosophy is a useless waste of time*. It's not that I decide to do philosophy, rather I am led into doing it even when I am trying to do something as practical as engineering.
Any learning system must be able to measure its performance and decide what to change and what not to change ("learn"). It must have a value system. If there are multiple things it must assess then it may need to consider a vector value system. One is forced to do/study axiology.
More advanced learning systems may need to monitor the time spent doing various things like searching memory, comparing quantities, feature extraction, deduction, interpolation, extrapolation, etc. Such systems will be "conscious" of what they do, the times spent on various actions, and any improvements which result.
Even simple Lego servos have built-in rotation sensors for feedback control. They are self-aware in this simple way. Similarly, a robot may need to detect and measure things like wheel slip and damage ("pain").
And when I'm teaching, the students will naturally ask me what the wave function is, and if quantum computers are able to do vastly more processing than classical computers then where is that processing happening? I have to think about how to best answer such questions.
*For example, Neil deGrasse Tyson, see Scientia Salon, 12 May 2014.
Or Steven Hawking, in The Grand Design, Bantam, 2010.
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