Explanation of my answers:
Adult humans - no explanation needed here. I'm curious what's going on with the ~5 percent of PhilPapers survey respondents who answered "no" to this one.
Cats - it's generally believed that cats have intelligence roughly equivalent to that of a 2 or 3 year old child. I have at least one clear memory from when I was two, and a handful from when I was 3. Unless you accept the young-earth creationist narrative that God created humans fully formed (which I obviously don't), then consciousness didn't just magically pop into fully formed existence upon human evolution reaching some magic threshold. It must have appeared, probably gradually, at some point along the evolutionary tree. I feel confident saying that Lucy of Atlas fame had conscious experience, for example. The question is how far back do you go, which is of course subjective. I believe that animals whose intelligence is sufficient to be equated with humans old enough to form memories are conscious, at least.
Fish - manta rays and cleaner wrasses have passed the
mirror test, putting them in good intellectual company. I also have a subjective feeling that sharks and similar animals also have conscious experience, that I can't provide objective reasoning for.
Flies - this is a difficult one. They certainly have the basic sensory organs to have the possibility of a meaningful internal subjective experience, but I have doubts.
Worms - their nervous systems are so simple, and their sensory organs so primitive, I don't see what input they even have to be conscious about.
Plants - same as worms but even more clear-cut. They don't have any nervous system whatsoever, unlike worms.
Particles - no (not a panpsychist)
Newborn babies - yes. It's true that basically no one has memories from that early, but the lack of very early memories in general is in part because we didn't have the conceptual and literal language then that we would now use to describe them. But lack of memories alone isn't proof - for example, I feel very confident stating that adults with anterograde amnesia have consciousness. Newborn baby brains, while less well developed than adult brains, are still basically human brains and I feel comfortable saying yes.
Current AI - no (not a panpsychist)
Future AI - no (not a panpsychist)
It's 11:30pm and I'm going to bed, maybe I'll elaborate on the last two later.
Poll
