https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11539261/Will-super-intelligent-computer-write-stories-poetry-steal-job-yours.html

ChatGPT is a powerful computer program designed to
stimulate conversation with humans — and it is now temporarily
freely available for anyone to try out online.

I asked it to ‘write a plot for a movie about computers that
replace people’. Within a couple of seconds, it produced the
story about Dr Ross and Neo. And — this is important — if I
typed the same instruction a second time, it would come up
with a different, sometimes radically different, answer.

ChatGPT’s idea for the film might not win any prizes for
originality. But the program has been widely hailed as
evidence that humanity has passed a milestone in its
relationship with computers.

.. . .

These (unconscious) things are pretty much at the
point where they could pass the traditional Turing
Test. At the very least they can fool humans in a
typical phone/text conversation well enough to
to be VERY useful for crime, even political
manipulation.

Actually "conscious" electronic entities are still
a ways off. Even though people have been thinking
about and researching what "consciousness" is all
about for at least 2500 years we STILL don't get
the trick. Even a toady frog is more 'conscious'
than anything that's come out of a modern lab. There
IS a trick to it for sure, we just don't get it.
In part it may be an issue of trying to solve the
puzzle from within the puzzle ... unrealized
biases to our thinking.

But, consider ... if you can FAKE 'consciousness'
WELL ENOUGH ... well ... what's the diff ? Today's
emulators like ChatGPI are getting more and more
fine-grained and thus "fake" is getting less and
less fake. It's an alternative path to 'consciousness'
and one that other "AI's" can help with, assisting in
their own evolution. Just a level or two above Musk's
creation and you actually have "Rosie The Robot" and
that changes a LOT. Ten, fifteen years ? There's a
sort of Moore's Law for "AI" too. From Roomba to
running households, business ops, factories .....

BTW, I don't like the term "AI" ... if you have
an intelligence then it's no longer "artificial",
merely "by alternative means". That means no
robo-slaves, no 'ownership' .....

As for the Google system ... we'll never really
know how "conscious" it was - lawyers have become
involved and all will remain in fog.