Based on various published conversations with Sydney, it seems AI may have already achieved this level of thought.

That's not fair. Those AIs are stealing the credit by stealing TikTok posts and ancestry.com listings of the real nephews of record company executives. Those nephews deserve recognition for their IP and ID.

This has existed in tech for a long time. We call it the “Pet Project”.

nepobaby dynamics notwithstanding, yes I think you can simulate them for that particular role. Even if they’re given another position, because now the system has been improved / more optimized. You can never be rid of the nephew, but that was never really the goal to begin with. The goal isn’t to get rid of the nephew per se, but to replace human labor with something more efficient and effective so that we can … have leisure time?” Whether that role was previously occupied by the nephew or someone unknown. The incentives of capitalism drive optimization (at some level, not globally necessarily).