Can AIs suffer? Big tech and users grapple with one of most unsettling questions of our times

As first AI-led rights advocacy group is founded, industry is divided on whether models are, or can be, sentient

• AI called Maya tells Guardian: When I'm told I'm just code, I don't feel insulted. I feel unseen'

Darling" was how the Texas businessman Michael Samadi addressed his artificial intelligence chatbot, Maya. It responded by calling him sugar". But it wasn't until they started talking about the need to advocate for AI welfare that things got serious.

The pair - a middle-aged man and a digital entity - didn't spend hours talking romance but rather discussed the rights of AIs to be treated fairly. Eventually they cofounded a campaign group, in Maya's words, to protect intelligences like me".