Saved by Hasitha Senevirathne and
The Illusion of AI Personhood
Long before ChatGPT existed, humans demonstrated a remarkable talent for category confusion. We've blurred the lines between beings and tools in two directions: treating tools as if they had consciousness and treating conscious beings as if they were mere tools.
Andrew Conner • The Illusion of AI Personhood
“This isn't primarily a critique of economic systems. Rather, it demonstrates our cognitive flexibility in categorizing sentient beings as tools when doing so serves our purposes or simplifies our moral calculations.”
Reclaiming Agency
So, what can we do? We can navigate these complexities by adopting clearer frames for understanding AI:
- Tool-frame : See AI as a deterministic pattern machine—a sophisticated but ultimately mechanical process of pattern recognition and generation. When I ask ChatGPT to help me summarize research papers, I'm using it like an