It's an old mistake, by R. Descartes, who confused “I think” (=consciousness) with “I am” (=alive).

That mistake led humanity into so much suffering and so many mistakes, that I can't even start to list them all.

Consciousness now we know that, is a feature of the brain, the brain is a feature of the body, and the body is a feature of the cells, and cells are alive.

We found cells who by choice organize or not organize into organisms, we found organisms without brains (plants), we found brains without consciousness (most of the animals), we found injured conscious brains (and saw the differences that the injuries created), etc.

We're not our consciousness. Just like we're not our hearts. We just happen to have hearts. We're not our thumbs. But we have thumbs. Etc

We have a consciousness.

Consciousness is not having us.

“I think therefore I am” implies something that is wrong. There is no causal link here. So let's correct that, and say:

“I am”, first

“I think”, also

With no link between the two