Cortical Labs, backed by In-Q-Tel among others, has been commercializing a "Wetware-as-a-service." @Novel Minds Project has two great posts providing a more detailed background of the group.
Your next-door functionalist might argue that digital minds are more likely to be consciousness than a petri dish playing Doom. My personal view is one of epistemic humility with the added note that action along this vector is very cost effective given popular sentiment (see comments on Coritcal's video). This does indicate that, counterfactually, action is more likely to be taken by the mainstream.
I'm unsure exactly what "action" even looks like? I'd imagine empirical tests would be hard given Coritcal's lead in wetware and likely resistance to consciousness research. I'd love to hear what people more experience than I think.
