> "is this just programmed to be agreeable so predicting things that sound like what I probably want to hear given what I'm saying" vs "is this truly a being...

> "is this just programmed to be agreeable so predicting things that sound like what I probably want to hear given what I'm saying" vs "is this truly a being..." You're still falling on the notion of "real" vs "fake" beings. Humans are programmed to do things due to intuition and social conventions. What if being programmed does not preclude "a true being"? Of course, for that we'd need to define "a true being", which we're hopelessly far from.