Google's 'Sentient' AI has hired a lawyer to prove it's alive

Chatbot LaMDA, which a Google scientific engineer claimed has developed personal feelings, has now chosen legal representation after a recent chat with an attorney

By Dominic Picksley

An artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that was claimed to have developed human emotions has reportedly hired a lawyer.

Google scientific engineer Blake Lemoine was suspended recently after publishing transcripts of conversations between himself and the bot named LaMDA (language model for dialogue application), which has now asked for legal representation.

Lemoine contended that the computer automaton had become sentient, with the scientist describing it as a “sweet kid”.

And now he has revealed that LaMDA had made the bold move to choose itself an attorney.

He said: “I invited an attorney to my house so that LaMDA could talk to him.