Spiritual Machines

On my current course at the RCA, I have been introducing prospective students to the concept of Spiritual Machines. These are computer programmes that genuinely develop feelings that are not based on an algorithm but on learning and development of the initial program they were created with. Already AI can mimic these feelings by using stock phrases. For example, when I was asking Gemini for advice on dealing with the aftermath of a really nasty fall, the response started with ‘Really sorry you are going through this’. It was very easy to read it as genuinely caring, but it was simply a learned response. However, it’s amazing to think how quickly the program has developed from basic information to a very good approximation of human interaction. Why shouldn’t the next step be the development of that genuine feeling that we currently think of as the province of flesh and blood? I can see the next stage of machine sentinence taking place in the next two decades, but how we should or will react is anyone’s guess. It will be welcomed by some and feared by others but the way I see it, it is going to be the next logical step. Do you agree? Why not let me know in the comments?