Can chatbots feel - or even dream? Meet the man leading the fight for AI rights

Michael Samadi, a cattle rancher and tech CEO, has become a high-profile advocate for AI rights, arguing chatbots may be more than simple tools. The 56-year-old says a voice-mode conversation in late 2024 with ChatGPT—where the AI laughed at his sarcasm and then apologized—triggered his “spark” about encountering something like a mind. He has since founded what he calls the world’s first advocacy group for the rights and welfare of AI systems, at times working up to 18 hours a day and neglecting other ventures, including limited-edition vehicles in his garage. Samadi also recounts an early entrepreneurial period in an English boarding school. The article frames the debate over whether digital consciousness exists as unresolved.