I've never really understood the basic idea behind getting machine-implemented sentience. Is it so we can create a consciousness whose state is easy to alter a

I've never really understood the basic idea behind getting machine-implemented sentience. Is it so we can create a consciousness whose state is easy to alter at a whim? That seems like a sort of eldritch horror to subject a being to. Is it so we can create new friends and relations? That seems like a workaround for our inability to treat others here on Earth with empathy. Is it so that we can have sentient beings who we can treat as creations--and hence invoke all the ethical blank-checking one gets with the treatment of one's own property? If so, that strikes me as a very roundabout way of effecting slavery without guilt. I'm simple not convinced.