if exists(thing) {
write(thing);
} else {
write(“I do not know”);
}

Yea I see what you mean, I guess in that sense they know if a state is true or false.

Then in that respect AIs aren’t even as powerful as an ordinary computer program.

No computer programs “know” anything. They’re just sets of instructions with varying complexity.

I can’t say for certain because I wasn’t given one but I can’t imagine me and my friends would have been willing to communicate with each other on devices provided by our school. Even in the early 00s it would have been filled with spyware.

Oh please Christ tell me that kids these days aren’t that dumb when it comes to computers.