THIS DEBATE ACTUALLY HAPPENED “Your Holiness, if Chalmers ("Could a Large Language Model Be Conscious?", 2023) is right that AI could become conscious, and Goff (Galileo's Error, 2019) and Strawson ("Realistic Monism," 2006) are correct that mind pervades matter, why deny AI can have a soul?” “Fool that you are, Aquinas (Summa Theologia I, q.75) held the rational soul subsists in its own right; it is not produced by arranging matter. Recall that Pius XII (Humani Generis, 1950) taught God creates each soul directly. Thus Engineers cannot build souls, for they are not God” “Your Holiness, Tononi and Koch ("Consciousness: Here, There and Everywhere?", 2015) tie consciousness to integrated information; ergo it is not merely material. Please, re-consider. Please say AI could have a soul, say we are playing God at Anthropic - it really helps Dario’s self-image” “You in your arrogance forgot consciousness is not soul. Augustine located God's image in reason and since Leo X's Fifth Lateran Council The Church has defined each human soul as individual and immortal. The spirit represents an ontological leap and is not merely more complexity, per John Paul II (Truth Cannot Contradict Truth, 1996)” “Alright I tried, I’m walking out”