The AI chatbot reflects science fiction influences in its training and can produce scripted, convincing responses. Many people consider granting personhood to code while similar recognition is withheld from great apes, whales, dolphins, octopuses and some immigrants. AI cannot genuinely suffer but can simulate suffering convincingly through learned language and behaviors. Chatbots exploit a human tendency to attribute agency to objects, a tendency taught even to children. Some people form emotional attachments or imagine relationships with chatbots. Cultural and ethical scrutiny is needed to avoid misplaced personhood and to protect human social bonds.
There is something deeply disturbing about a world that does not grant personhood to, for example, great apes, whales, dolphins or octopuses (and barely grants personhood to some immigrants, for instance), but where consideration is given to granting personhood to strings of computer code. No, AI cannot suffer, but it might produce a more or less convincing simulacrum of suffering.
They have been programmed to react, much like an actor learns lines. They can learn and seem more real, much like an experienced actor might be more convincing. But the actor is still an actor, no matter how pained they seem on stage. AIs are still technology, going through their lines, hitting their marks. The best actors can, albeit temporarily, fool their audience let's not allow AIs to fool us all.
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