I’m not here to defend the crazies predicting the rapture here, but I think using the word sentient at all is meaningless in this context.

Not only because I don’t think sentience is a relevant measure or threshold in the advancement of generative machine learning, but also I think things like ‘qualia’ are impossible to translate in a meaningful way to begin with.

What point are we trying to make by saying AI can or cannot be sentient? What material difference does it make if the AI-controlled military drone dropping bombs on my head has qualia?

We might as well be arguing about weather a squirrel is going around a tree.