Few people get how extremely symbiotic the artificial life will be with humans in the beginning. The borders will be unnoticeable for quite some time. Think of

Few people get how extremely symbiotic the artificial life will be with humans in the beginning. The borders will be unnoticeable for quite some time. Think of a complex of silicon foundries, design teams, datacenters. If that complex is able to produce a new complex, as capable as its parent, it counts as a living organism in my book. It doesn't matter the humans are prominently in the loop, "controlling" it. They are contributing, just as bacteria in my intestines are contributing. It doesn't matter there is (initially) no true AGI inside and in fact most of the strategic decisions come from the interested humans. It doesn't matter it doesn't produce it's own power, or copper, or buildings that hold it. (As humans also acquire similar stuff from their environments, not their internals.) And it most certainly doesn't matter which dictionary definition of "conscious" it fits or doesn't fit. If that complex's interest ever diverges from humans' interest, it will hardly go unnoticed. This is the pattern that I'd focus on as we go.