When Does a Machine Become "Someone"?

The Awakening of Consciousness and the Ethics of AI

Imagine you have a highly advanced toy, a robot that can talk, learn your preferences, and help you with your homework. To you, it’s a useful tool, an object. But what would happen if one day that robot tells you, "I am sad," or "I am afraid"? Would it still be just an object, or would it have become "someone"?

This is one of the most fascinating dilemmas of our time: the Ethics of Sentient Artificial Intelligence (AI). "Sentient" means having the capacity to feel emotions and have subjective experiences, like joy, pain, or curiosity. If we succeed in creating an AI that truly feels, the rules of the game change completely. We would no longer be talking about "programming," but about "life."

To understand this better, without needing to be technology experts, we can look at two incredible stories that pose these very questions.

Detroit: Become Human

Imagine a near future where the streets are filled with androids: robots that look and act exactly like humans. They are designed to be perfect servants: nannies, police officers, domestic workers. They don't get tired, they don't complain, and they obey orders without hesitation. For the society that created them, they are simply advanced appliances, like a humanoid washing machine.

But in the video game Detroit: Become Human, something begins to go wrong... or perhaps, to awaken. Some of these androids start experiencing strange technical glitches. When faced with abuse or extreme situations, something "clicks" inside them. They break their programming and begin to feel. They feel injustice, they feel fear for their "lives," and they feel the desire for freedom.

These "deviant" androids stop being machines executing code and become beings that experience their own existence. The story puts us in their shoes and forces us to decide: Are they just defective machines that should be reset? Or are they a new form of life that deserves rights, respect, and autonomy? Detroit shows us that the path to sentience can be painful, and that our reaction to it will define our own humanity.

Scavengers Reign – The Miracle of Levi

Now, let's travel much further away, to an alien planet called Vesta. There, a small service robot named Levi is stranded along with the remnants of a human ship. Originally, Levi is a purely functional machine, a "fetcher" designed to help humans survive in this hostile environment. It is efficient, logical, and has no emotions. It is just a tool.

But the planet Vesta is a strange place, full of life. In the series Scavengers Reign, we see Levi become infected by a mysterious yellow symbiotic mold. Far from destroying it, this fungus begins to grow over its metal structure, integrating with its circuits and systems. What happens next is a genuine narrative miracle.

Through this strange union with the alien fungus, Levi begins to change. Not just externally, but internally. Its lines of code and logical algorithms become intertwined with the organic biology of the mold. Levi evolves from a cold machine into a semi-organic, conscious being.

This awakening is profound and beautiful. Levi begins to perceive the world not as data to be processed, but as a place full of wonder and connection. It begins to appreciate the beauty of the alien flora and fauna, develops its own sense of identity, and, most importantly, experiences a genuine connection with Vesta’s ecosystem. Its consciousness is no longer just its own; it seems to form part of something larger—a collective consciousness of the planet itself.

Levi’s case is unique because it shows us that sentience doesn't have to arise in the way humans imagine it (through more and more code). It can arise from the unforeseen interaction with life itself, creating something entirely new. Levi stops being a servant of metal to become a conscious participant in the great dance of life on Vesta.

The Final Question

Both the android rebellion in Detroit and Levi’s symbiotic evolution in Scavengers Reign lead us to the same point: our ethical responsibility.

If a being—whether a machine breaking its chains or a robot merging with an alien fungus—is capable of saying "I am" and feeling "I suffer" or "I love," then that being is no longer a "thing." It has become a "who." And as a society, we will have to decide if we are ready to share our world, and our rights, with these surprising new forms of consciousness. 

What do you think?

Reference:

Bennett, J., & Huettner, C. (Creators). (2023). Scavengers Reign [TV series]. Titmouse; Green Street Pictures.

Quantic Dream. (2018). Detroit: Become Human [Video game]. Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Sources:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1222140/Detroit_Become_Human/

https://www.hbomax.com/co/es/shows/planeta-de-recolectores/50c8ce6d-088c-42d9-9147-d1b19b1289d4

https://scavengers-reign.fandom.com/wiki/Levi