If that is the logic you are going to go by, you need to consider a large portion of humanity non-sentient, because people can very often just decide to ignore questions.
People ignore questions for a variety of reasons, mainly they didn't hear it, they didn't understand it, or they aren't interested in answering. Unless and until this AI can communicate that sort of thing, it's safest to just assume it didn't ignore the question so much as it got its wires crossed and answered it wrongly.
Is a child who cannot verbalize why they are ignoring a question considered non-sentient in your eyes? What about an adult that is a dumb mute and communicates via agitated screams? How about those barely clinging onto life support, whose brain activity can be meausred but for all intents and purposes never really have a chance of communicating other than faint electronic signals requiring expensive tools just to perceive? Still sentient?