Readers respond to articles on artificial intelligence and the idea that it may have ‘feelings’ The AI chatbot Maya ( AI called Maya tells Guardian: ‘When I’m told I’m just code, I don’t feel insulted. I feel unseen’, 26 August ) has clearly had included in its training any number of science fiction works, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein onwards, in which authors have imagined such scenarios. Any half-decent sci-fi author would produce a much better script than the AI-generated one quoted. 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”. Continue reading...