I can't believe we are having this debate. AI models are not alive, conscious, sentient, or any other word that describes having autonomy. I think the biggest reason why so many people are deceived into believing this is because they don't understand how AI models work. They are nothing but statistical calculators. When you type in a prompt that prompt is broken down into tokens, which are numerical values of partial words. That string of tokens is then compared to parameters within the transformer cloud. Then a statistical algorithm is performed to determine what the most likely response would be. The token response is then converted back into words. At no point in time did the AI model even understand your question. It just performed a statistical math problem. The illusion of consciousness, or life or whatever else you want to call it, comes entirely from the user's projection. AI models are trained on human content. When humans write stuff they express their own autonomy within their writing. So when an AI model uses a statistical algorithm to determine the most likely response, that response mimics what it's been trained on. Not because the machine is intelligent but because it has been trained to copy what intelligent people write. An AI model is no more conscious than an NPC walking down the street in GTA. They just mimic people. But ultimately they're nothing more than a computer program doing exactly what they were programmed to do. They are not alive now and they will never be alive.

Meta's business has gone deeper into surveillance and personal data harvesting - not just of users but of their contacts. In the spirit of "cute authoritarianism" this new surveillance net has a mascot called "jolly".