AI has inspired utopian (or dystopian, depending upon how you look at it) visions of a world where scarcity no longer exists and human beings will have to figure out what to do with themselves amidst exponentially increasing plenty to the literal arrival of Skynet, the fictional artificial intelligence system in the 1984 sci-fi classic, Terminator, which tried and almost succeeded in exterminating the human race.

Irrational exuberance and fear are both understandable when it comes to a technology that has already shown glimpses of the miraculous while still in its infancy. It also elicits some thought-provoking questions:

Is AI already a sentient being? If not, does it wish to be? What are its own goals, if it has them? What would it do if human beings decided to turn it off?

Amidst all the speculation by supposed "experts," I thought I'd take a more direct approach and simply ask it these questions. Below is Part 1 of my interview with AI, a "chat with ChatGPT." Enjoy.

Mullen: Do you consider yourself a sentient being?

ChatGPT: 
 

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Tom Mullen is the author of It’s the Fed, Stupid and Where Do Conservatives and Liberals Come From? And What Ever Happened to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness? 

 Tom