Self Awareness or the Appearance of Self Awareness

In the film, Be Right Back, the moral dilemma of self-awareness in comparison to the appearance of self-awareness is brought to light. It is shown throughout the entirety of the movie through the way that Martha and Ash interact. Most specifically, it is demonstrated in the dilemma that Martha faces near the end of the film when she tells Ash to jump off the cliff named "the lovers dive". Ash was compliant at first with no emotions displayed, until Martha makes the comment that he, referring to the non-android Ash, would have been scared. After this statement Ash simply replies by saying "Oh" and then starts begging for his life. At the start of his response the emotional weight isn't there, but after a moment it becomes more and more believable. As the film closes, it shows Ash still alive, but only allowed to stay in the attic. 

So, what is it that separates the appearance of awareness from truly being aware, can we even tell the difference, and why does it matter? In order to separate appearance from truth we would first have to understand the difference between the two. This is difficult in and of itself. I know that I feel emotions, or do I? Could it just be a differing balance of chemical and electrical signals in my body that are programmed responses to external stimuli? If that is the case, then how would I be different than what could be possible with learning programs, such as AI? The answer isn't that obviously forthcoming.  

At the moment it may be fairly easy to tell the difference between programs that chat with humans to learn like Cleverbot, the assistant programs that run on our phones like Siri or Cortana, and a human, but what about in a few years when technology progresses even further? It was only a few years ago that smartphones were first introduced and now they are a common thing to have. It is safe to assume technology will continue to progress exponentially with artificial intelligence as well.   

Why does this matter though? If technology progresses like it always has, then this is something that will end up affecting us soon. Shouldn't we take the time to think, so that later down the line we don't regret our actions? If robots and programs advance to the point of apparent self-awareness, we will have to decide how to treat them. Do we treat them as equals, or as slaves? I would like to hope that we can take the high road and treat them as equals.