Thought you did a really good job of making your points @Ross Scott. I'm a programmer and I like to think I have a decent knowledge of ML and LLMs, but I would have struggled myself as it seemed like a lot of his arguments didn't really go anywhere and were strange red herrings, but also on that point I think it would have been more productive if he tried to have a conversation and explore the topic more than try to win a debate against someone that admits upfront that it's not their area of expertise.
I could be wrong about the guy but to me that signals someone trying to make themselves look smarter rather than add something of value.
Interesting that he seems to have at least a basic understanding of how LLMs work but still can't follow the logic of how that doesn't indicate consciousness in any way. The thing is though it's a hard topic to get into without both parties agreeing exactly what constitutes consciousness and what parameters need to be met before we can say something is sentient.