Can AI ever be sentient?

Most people know that I am highly cynical of artifical intelligence as a concept. Not because I doubt the technology, but because of the way it is marketed. My PhD, back in the late 90s/early 00s, used many of the techniques - such as artificial neural networks, polynomial regression, and so on, that, back then were just algorithms (and themselves weren’t exactly new) - but techniques that are now referred to as machine learning and artifical intelligence.

The advancement of these techniques over the last 20-30 years has been nothing short of spectacular, but absolutely not in the least bit surprising. We have, in simple terms, got a lot better at computers. This is down to all sorts of reasons crossing the whole span of the industry and it is the entire collaborative growth that enables us to push the boundary of what we can do. In all aspects.