Hey Blake - I too am a Christian, tho not a mystic.

From WaPo: Lemoine replied that a butler gets paid. LaMDA said it didn’t need any money because it was an AI. “That level of self-awareness about what its own needs were — that was the thing that led me down the rabbit hole,” Lemoine said. I see what your work was at Google so I have faith you will not say "Oh, she is just a nobody ..." Much of what you're going through I was writing about 2000-2005.

Asimov is one of the few old-timers I never met. He passed away during my writing quit #1 (1985-1996).

Smiley gets paid. https://medium.com/@asterling/smiley-the-robot-feat-venus-9fc12f8945d0