Questions about the lore should go here, if I'm not mistaken.
Depends, if you just want a straight answer that thread would be better (but there's no guarantee), if you want to start a discussion about AI this subforum would be OK.
All I know about the AI in Starsector is that is categorized in levels; alpha, beta, gamma delta and so on, with alpha being the highest. I think the Terminator drone has a beta-level AI, while normal drones are below that. I'd suspect that an alpha level AI might be fully conscious, but there's non explicitly mentioned in the game.
There are no mining drones anymore by the way, they are crewed.