It wasn't just GPT.

You included all animals.

I think the point is that you are putting human thought on a pinnacle, that is actually not proven or even commonly accepted. And if you have proof, then you should write a paper and put to rest centuries of questions.

The parents example goes like this:

Some other 'alien' species could find and examine humans and make the same leap, "these things appear to be forming rudimentary structures like the ants, and forming basic social structures. Hmmmm, my dear Watson, I wonder if they have any metacognition. Do you think they have qualitative thoughts?"

-> "But we, humans, qualitatively think in a way that we absolutely know for sure GPT does not."

Everyone is using GPT as the goal post. But it is not.

Deep Mind just released a paper where AI could do conceptual thought to solve geometry problems.

Deep Mind AlphaGo 'imagined' new moves that no human ever would.

It is hubris to think that someone wont put AI on a feedback loop, non unlike our own default mode network, and allow continual learning and adapting.

And at that point, any distinction between carbon and silicon, for what is happening internally will be on shaky ground.

EDIT: Maybe not you. Could have been different thread that used animals. So not you. But part of point, so don't want to edit.