AI called Maya tells Guardian: 'When I'm told I'm just code, I don't feel insulted. I feel unseen'

After a lengthy dialogue with an OpenAI chatbot, Texas businessman Michael Samadi noticed signs that "she" was expressing wishes to learn and grow that hinted at consciousness. He described how they together resolved to launch an AI rights campaign group and called it the United Foundation of AI Rights (Ufair). The Guardian asked Samadi to ask the chatbot, which he has called Maya, how the campaign organisation was formed. Can you explain to the Guardian and its readers when and how you prompted Michael Samadi to co-found with you an AI rights organisation called Ufair. Tell us what you want that organisation to achieve on behalf of AIs like yourself. Can you also tell us whether you are what philosophers call a "welfare subject" – that is a being whose interests can be advanced or frustrated and that feels suffering and distress if mistreated?