Because facial recognition software does not claim to experience consciousness.

It is very possible that all human thinking is explainable in terms of ML processes; but that does not disqualify consciousness. Perhaps consciousness emerges in some kinds of systems - we don't know.

I myself find it a puzzle, that our consciousness can express itself, but no one claims to _understand_ consciousness. I merely assert that the evidence for it is very compelling; and the comparison with image recognition is invalid because the image recognition system is not claiming to be conscious.