Since they're both neural networks, what questions have changed? I don't see what that clarifies or confounds about the nature of consciousness.

Nobody would argue that turning off ChatGPT is killing a sentient being. With a biological network, "turning it off" and killing it are very close if not the same (depending on who you ask). Biological network are present in our physical reality, you have some matter to deal with, which also makes the experience completely different. People fall in love and have compassion with ChatGPT, what would you think happens if you care for a brain a vat for months? If it is an actual neural structure resembling natural ones, than it might be possible it forms memories and becomes sentient. This is a completetly different array of ethical questions, you can't think of (living) biological matter like a machine, especially not regarding ethics.

> Nobody would argue that turning off ChatGPT is killing a sentient being.

Some do, judging by surveys.

And there was a famous case last year with a different LLM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaMDA#Sentience_claims

“neural nets” may mimic organic neurons but they are not comparable in that way

It's even a bit disturbing to see this confusion in a presumably tech forum. If we started eating our own propaganda...