I think we can build emerging non-biological conciousness (if we keep going long enough) before we understand what conciousness is (if we ever understand that). But you can never prove anything or anybody is concious except yourself so attempting to prove it would be futile.

Whether or not we can prove it will not stop it from doing what it does, just like not being able to prove some other human is concious doesn't stop them from being so (or not ;)).