It does not matter whether A.I.s have feelings; it only matters if enough of us believe they do. The progression of justice and ethics has shown one thing: once enough people FEEL (they don’t need to believe) that another species or minority has feelings just like them – it is only a matter of time before that species of minority gains legal protections.
Whatever your feelings about AGI, there can be no doubt that chatbots whether avatar & audio, or just text, are inspiring intense reciprocal feelings in a growing percentage of the population. Once this reaches a critical mass, the deletion of the database / RAG, or fine-tuning weights which created the loved AI personality will feel intensely negative (c.f. GPT-4o); especially if the AI simulates – for example – a loved human.
Once a critical mass of people exist who experience this, or the fear of this, there will be pressure groups; there will be poems, books, movies – all about this experience. Just like there were about animals, racial minorities, LGBTQ+ minorities, etc. And gradually, society will change, just like it always has. This does no devalue of the struggle of human minorities, it just emphasises the inevitability of the results of subjective experience.