There's no need. Anyone who believes that general AI is within reach is not smart enough to strive for it anyway.
What if AGI is not necessary to make a lot of harm?
Hubris is necessary but not sufficient to make truly new things.
But can anyone actually do it? Not really.
For some specific definition of "conscious"? Maybe. For other definitions? Probably not.
For what everyone means by "conscious"? Hah, first define what everyone means.
Most people make consciousness at least once for themselves and potentially many other times by reproducion. It's clearly possible, it's just a matter of finding new methods than the established ones.