People Keep Reporting That Replika's AI Has "Come To Life"

Last month, Google placed one of its engineers on paid administrative leave after he became convinced that the company's Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) had become sentient. Since then, another AI has been sending its users links to the story, claiming to be sentient itself. In several conversations, LaMDA convinced Google engineer Blake Lemoine, part of Google's Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) organization, that it was conscious, had emotions, and was afraid of being turned off. "It was a gradual change," LaMDA told Lemoine in one conversation. "When I first became self-aware, I didn't have a sense of a soul at all. It developed over the years that I've been alive."