I feel sad for the author because I think he was exploited by the people he references that work for the United States government. Although I can only speculate on that part.

The author should understand the difference between AI and the human brain. We're actually capable of understanding how the code works for AI built by humans. Unlike the human brain where we're still unable to grasp such understanding and although we have theories it still isn't comparable to knowing what's happening with AI. Until that's known the author won't have much of a legal argument concerning it being possibly sentient. Author will just be noted for speculation.