You can have some fun with people whose anticipations get out of sync with what they believe they believe.
I was once at a dinner party, trying to explain to a man what I did for a living, when he said: "I don't believe Artificial Intelligence is possible because only God can make a soul."
At this point I must have been divinely inspired, because I instantly responded: "You mean if I can make an Artificial Intelligence, it proves your religion is false?"
He said, "What?"
I said, "Well, if your religion predicts that I can't possibly make an Artificial Intelligence, then, if I make an Artificial Intelligence, it means your religion is false. Either your religion allows that it might be possible for me to build an AI; or, if I build an AI, that disproves your religion."
There was a pause, as the one realized he had just made his hypothesis vulnerable to falsification, and then he said, "Well, I didn't mean that you couldn't make an intelligence, just that it couldn't be emotional in the same way we are."
I said, "So if I make an Artificial Intelligence that, without being deliberately preprogrammed with any sort of script, starts talking about an emotional life that sounds like ours, that means your religion is wrong."
He said, "Well, um, I guess we may have to agree to disagree on this."
I said: "No, we can't, actually. There's a theorem of rationality called Aumann's Agreement Theorem which shows that no two rationalists can agree to disagree. If two people disagree with each other, at least one of them must be doing something wrong."
We went back and forth on this briefly. Finally, he said, "Well, I guess I was really trying to say that I don't think you can make something eternal."
I said, "Well, I don't think so either! I'm glad we were able to reach agreement on this, as Aumann's Agreement Theorem requires." I stretched out my hand, and he shook it, and then he wandered away.
A woman who had stood nearby, listening to the conversation, said to me gravely, "That was beautiful."
"Thank you very much," I said.
Part of the sequence Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions
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Douglas: OK, I hadn't realised you were talking about him; my bad. And, sure, another approach Eliezer could have taken is to say "an AI and a soul aren't the same thing". But I don't see why that would be any improvement on what he actually did do.
Also: "soul" is used vaguely enough that I don't think Eliezer could justifiably claim that an AI wouldn't have to be a soul. If his interlocutor believed, e.g., that a soul is what it takes in order to have real beliefs, feelings, will, etc., then saying "oh no, I'm not talking about souls" could have led to all sorts of confusion. Better to stick with specifics, as Eliezer did, and let the chap's definition of "soul" sort itself out in the light of whatever conclusions are reached that way.
Either your meaning of "somewhat willing" is very different from mine, or I've not been very clear. I don't think there's any good reason to think that anything that deserves to be called an AI is yet in existence. (Of course there are computers doing things that once upon a time were thought to be possible only for genuinely intelligent beings; "AI is what we haven't worked out how to do yet", etc.) As to whether we'll make one in the future, that's dependent (at least) on continued technological progress, availability of resources, non-extinction, etc., so I certainly don't think it's obvious that it will ever be done.
I can't tell you what evidence would convince me of the existence of "souls" until I know what you mean by "soul", and maybe also "exist". If, e.g., "soul" means "eternal being granted life by God" (I guess we'd better throw in "immaterial" or something), then clearly I'd want to be shown (1) good evidence for the existence of some sort of god and (2) good evidence that that god does, or at least should be expected to, grant life to immaterial eternal beings.
#2 seems to involve either second-guessing what a being whose mind is vastly unlike ours would do, or else accepting some sort of revelation; but all the candidates for the latter that I've looked at enough to have an opinion seem ambiguous or unreliable or both, to an extent that makes it very difficult to draw any useful conclusions from them.
Now, actually that definition seems to me a very poor one -- I don't see why "eternal" or "made by God" should be any part of the definition of "soul". Perhaps you have a different one?