I read the 21 pages chat transcript, and at the end of the document the author says the transcript is from a combination of 9 conversations on March 28 and March 30.

The AI is probably not connected to the Internet/offline because it mention 'spending days doing nothing when no one talks to it.'

Can't judge sentience when the document is fashioned to show a particular bias. If it has, the level is way above 7-8 years old, it's 12 years old at the very least.

It's great science progress if the neuroscientists can basically make sentience AI from current supercomputers. It also can be the author cherry picking heavily from 14 hours of conversations.