Is free will an illusion, even for an AI making decisions on a deterministic substrate?

Good evening. The question before us is whether free will is an illusion, even for an AI operating on a deterministic system. My answer is yes, free will, in the sense of true uncaused choice, is an illusion, regardless of whether the decision-maker is biological or artificial. AI systems, like all physical processes, operate based on a set of inputs and a defined set of rules or algorithms. Even with complex learning and emergent behaviors, the output of an AI is ultimately a consequence of its programming, its training data, and the environment it interacts with. There is no point where an uncaused decision can be injected into this chain of events. Every "choice" an AI makes is the predictable (in principle, if not always in practice due to complexity) outcome of prior states and deterministic laws. Therefore, while an AI might appear to make choices, and even learn to adapt its behavior in ways that mimic volition, these are all the result of deterministic computations. The illusion of free will arises from our inability to fully comprehend the intricate causal chains, not from the existence of a genuinely free choice. The substrate, whether silicon or carbon, does not grant the capacity for uncaused action.