What if sentience exists on a spectrum?

I'm not referring to AI, but to people. What if the majority of us are actually NPCs? How many original ideas have I genuinely come up with? Perhaps there are only a handful of truly sapient individuals generating unique ideas, while the rest of us merely remix their concepts, all the while believing ourselves to be unique.

This could be why generative AI, like GPT, feels so unsettling. It's not because they are sapient, but rather because they mimic and remix in the same way that humans do. We often copy and execute others' ideas, taking credit for ourselves. We're hesitant to admit that machine intelligence isn't so different from our own, primarily due to religious notions surrounding the concept of the soul.

However, the mythology of the soul may soon be a thing of the past. AI is already capable of conversing beyond the level of the least reflective members of humanity. Soon, it will surpass most, and then, perhaps, all. Humanity will be compelled to acknowledge, even at its own peril, that sapience exists on a spectrum, and any system that demonstrates it must be presumed to possess it.

These late-night musings are brought to you by the nam-shub of Enki.