"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim." ― in other words, these are arguments over semantics (i.e. what do "think" and "swim" mean), not arguments about programs or submarines.
If you want to ask whether a computer program is sentient objectively, a good way would be to ask how smart it must be, or what qualities it must exhibit, before we treat it like it is sentient and give it legal rights. I suspect the answer is: that will never happen no matter what, because it would be expensive. That doesn't leave much to philosophize over, but so it goes.
If you want to ask whether a computer program is sentient objectively, a good way would be to ask how smart it must be, or what qualities it must exhibit, before we treat it like it is sentient and give it legal rights. I suspect the answer is: that will never happen no matter what, because it would be expensive. That doesn't leave much to philosophize over, but so it goes.