People are falling in love with their chatbots. There are now dozens of apps that offer intimate companionship with an AI-powered bot, and they have millions of users. A recent survey of users found that 19% of Americans have interacted with an AI meant to simulate a romantic partner.
I don’t know if I would agree with that as a requirement for personhood, I extend the concept to all animals and I’m hardly alone in that.
I think we agree though that there has to be some sort of being for there to be a person and any meaningful connection. If it isn’t like something to be that thing then it can’t be something you have any sort of relationship with beyond use.
LLMs don’t even have persistent state, it’s exceedingly difficult to imagine that you could to anything like “talk” to one, let alone have a romance.
moral agency being a requirement for full personhood is pretty well established in philosophy like im not speaking off cuff here or from some personal bias
this is not to say all philosophers require it but its pretty big in the list of requirements for personhood by most
and one can argue that many animals have some sense of moral agency even if it may be rudimentary or different from our own. it is, for instance, blatently obvious that many dogs will put themselves in danger to act in ways contrary to survival instinct to protect members of their “family”. that they feel guilt indicating a sense of right and wrong and so on.
anyways we’ll get off track here going down this debate and honestly, a lot smarter people than me have discussed this issue in greater detail with much more insight than i can ever give it