Our understanding that we are dealing with a fellow human is not something intellectual. It is instinctive, innate, part of our biology.
We don’t reject the humanity of chatbots because they are insufficiently capable. We reject their humanity because they are not human.
It means nothing to us if they are turned off, or duplicated, or altered in various ways, because there is nothing really at stake.
In contrast, we view each human life as inherently precious, and the loss of a human life as a tragedy. This is not intellectual. It is tribal, it is
primal, and it is baked into our DNA.
The rate of A.I. development is not relevant here. In this realm, there are larger forces at work.