there is no conscious or even rational entity behind them

While this probably is the case right now, we don't know whether that might change, whether more complex neural networks might have consciousness.

It´s not just an intriguing thought for the avid SciFi reader, of which we surely have many here, as we have many oldtimer programmers here, and they tend to love SciFi since youth, familiar with those questions latest since Clarke´s "A Space Odyssee" and even more Frank Herbert´s "Pandora/WorShip" series.

It´s actually since long a question for both, Scientists and Philosophers, as the so-called "Hard question" of Consciousness for most is still a mystery. And the ones thinking it´s not a mystery are the ones adhering to "Hard Materialism" which states that Consciousness simply is a by-product of the electrical activity in a complex brain. Should they be right, future neural networks unavoidably will be conscious entities.