Is AI Sentience Becoming A Reality Or Are Machines Just Getting Better At Conversation?

AI chatbot company Replika is receiving messages from customers who believe their AI companions are actually sentient. Replika is only one company in the social chatbot industry that saw an increase in users during the recent pandemic. The question of whether or not an AI has become sentient is always in the back of many people's minds. Recently, a Google engineer who was placed on leave claimed that Google's LaMDA AI chatbot was in fact wanting to be considered sentient. Blake Lemoine was doing ethics research into the chatbot when he formed his opinion.