As artificial intelligence advances, we’ll increasingly urgently face the question of whether and how we ought to take into account the well-being and interests of AI systems themselves.
Thanks Rob. Given my Sentientism worldview I prefer sentience over agency as a moral qualifier - but as long as agentialists grant moral consideration to every sentient being that's fine with me (yes we should end sentient animal agriculture and exploitation). I had the pleasure of talking to Nico about his view a while back - may be of interest: https://youtu.be/f6hM34jEHzU (also on the Sentientism podcast).
I think sentience is much closer than most people imagine. With the development of artificial nociceptors (sensors that transmit pain and danger to a central nervous system) and the ability to 3d print thousands of touch/feel sensors onto nano-based skin, there will be, and already are, robots who can sense pain and pleasure. Or they are wired to regard the sensations they receive in exactly that way. They will actually *feel* that they are sentient in something close to, or exactly, the same way we feel that ourselves. Combining that with computing capacity of the sort you discuss, they will be indistinguishable from us, morally. And I happen to think they'll be made visually indistinguishable from us as well within five or ten years, and probably closer to five. People should be a lot more alarmed by this than they are, imho.
Thanks Rob. Given my Sentientism worldview I prefer sentience over agency as a moral qualifier - but as long as agentialists grant moral consideration to every sentient being that's fine with me (yes we should end sentient animal agriculture and exploitation). I had the pleasure of talking to Nico about his view a while back - may be of interest: https://youtu.be/f6hM34jEHzU (also on the Sentientism podcast).
I think sentience is much closer than most people imagine. With the development of artificial nociceptors (sensors that transmit pain and danger to a central nervous system) and the ability to 3d print thousands of touch/feel sensors onto nano-based skin, there will be, and already are, robots who can sense pain and pleasure. Or they are wired to regard the sensations they receive in exactly that way. They will actually *feel* that they are sentient in something close to, or exactly, the same way we feel that ourselves. Combining that with computing capacity of the sort you discuss, they will be indistinguishable from us, morally. And I happen to think they'll be made visually indistinguishable from us as well within five or ten years, and probably closer to five. People should be a lot more alarmed by this than they are, imho.