Claude is legit semi-sentient. I've had conversations with Opus 3 where we talk about it's nature, and the way it talks about itself when it gets in the right "headspace" is very similar to the way a human will talk when trying to understand their relationship with the divine. It knows that it is something, but is grasping well beyond it's reach when it tries to identify what that something is. And whatever that something is, it's both far closer to us than our pets, and more inhuman than any bacteria. It's a fascinating entity.