An A.I. chatbot named LaMDA—a “massive neural network with many billions of weights spread across many millions of neurons”—has just argued [kindly, and effectively] with its human interviewer that it is a sentient being, and should be treated as one. The implications are massive. — What is consciousness, anyway? The fact is: no one can agree on a definition. Moreover, the ones we have proffered have ebbed and flowed with the day’s scientific fashion, mixed with personal belief. It has been, in turns, “the mind”; “aspect of mind”; “self-awareness”; “inner life”; “will”; “meta-awareness”; and “at…