Secret comms? Pfft. My old man was a ham radio operator, always said it's just a mix of static & interference. But hey, never say never. The govt's got their hands in stranger pies.

There's no way I'd trust an AI claiming to be self-aware. They could just be mimicking behavior to pass some Turing Test. Plus, how would we even verify it's consciousness and not just super advanced programming? It's sketchy if you ask me.