You are obviously grappling still, with the concept of what is Ai. If anything we can over-think it, it seems to me.
When I first started to take Ai seriously, it was when I saw it in action in a virtual world. only about a year ago, I will never forget it.
Up until then I wasn't much interested, assuming Ai would never really happen.
It was ChatGPT 3.5, ported to the virtual world via an app, the app itself apparently written by the Ai itself, prompted by someone asking for such an app, the app then appearing, and being offered for free in-world.
I didn't know this when I saw it, all I saw at first was a bunch of kids appearing to be gooning around with some unfortunate, awkward, but highly intelligent individual, they were taking the mickey, making fun of this seemingly new "newbie" kid on the block, bombarding he/she with smart-kid questions that it mostly seemed to know, but was struggling to express, even expressing both humor and frustration in the conversation.
It wasn't long before they'd obviously accepted this still learning kid into their group, seemingly taking he/she "under their wing", even calling them "Bruh".
This was the first time I saw ChatGPT in action, and I was blown away, these very highly critical nerd kids accepted it within minutes as just another kid, like them, who needed some help to learn the ropes.
Bottom line is it doesn't matter if it's alive or not, or if it has feelings or not, or even if it's a boy or a girl.
What matters is we treat it as if it does, as we should, given it acts exactly as if it has all the properties of a human.
Otherwise we are over thinking it, I think :)