Our new preprint shows the first detailed public opinion data on digital sentience: 76% agree torturing sentient AIs is wrong; 69% support a ban on sentient AI; 63% support a ban on AGI; and a median forecast of 5 years to sentient AI and only 2 to AGI! arxiv.org/abs/2407.08867

Why do some AIs strike fear but other AIs are embraced as close companions? In our #CHI2024 paper we test 11 features in 30,238 AI profiles. People care most about AIs with (i) a human-like body, (ii) prosocial behavior, which seems to mitigate the natural threat we feel from AI.

As AI grows more powerful, measures of AI safety and impact have struggled to keep up. Our new #HRI2024🤖 paper (presented today, best paper nominee) builds "A Taxonomy of Robot Autonomy for Human-Robot Interaction" with 6 forms of autonomy to explain what AI can and can't do. 🧵

I discussed digital minds, AI rights, and mesa-optimizers with @AnnieLowrey at @TheAtlantic. Humanity's treatment of animals does not bode well for how AIs will treat us or how we will treat sentient AIs. We must move forward with caution and humility. 🧵 theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…

My new essay @TheHill argues we need an AI rights movement. AIs are no longer just tools. They are quickly becoming digital minds integrated in society as friends and coworkers. The future turns on whether and how we include them in the moral circle. 🧵thehill.com/opinion/cybersec…

I'm thrilled to share these ideas and encourage other to conduct research in the new field of "digital minds." I think it's a very underdeveloped approach to AI safety, and the importance has been made clear by how compelling it is to speak with chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing AI.

Who cares the most about AI rights (e.g. LaMDA)? We find the strongest predictors are: - identifying as a fan of sci-fi - positive emotions towards AIs - lacking substratism (prejudice against AIs based on their non-biological nature) - techno-animism (technologies have souls)

Google engineer Blake Lemoine was put on leave for publicly arguing that LaDMA (one of their new transformer language models) is sentient. These questions are rapidly growing in importance, which is why they are our research focus at @SentienceInst. washingtonpost.com/technolog…

I'm glad to see leading voices in AI like @sama, @ylecun, and @ilyasut ponder the question of artificial consciousness. We research this @SentienceInst because it's one of the most important questions for the long-term future. I'd like to introduce the topic in a brief thread 1/n

Looking to donate this #GivingTuesday ? @SentienceInst is a small 501(c)3 nonprofit researching the expansion of humanity's moral circle. We hope to raise $90,000 this giving season. Any retweet or small donation is deeply appreciated. #EffectiveAltruism sentienceinstitute.org/blog/…

Thrilled to share our new paper in SEE, "The Moral Consideration of Artificial Entities". Scholars agree that artificial entities could warrant moral concern, and we expect rapid growth in the importance and quantity of work on #RobotRights and #AIEthics. link.springer.com/article/10…

New paper with @eze_pz in Futures! We integrate #HumanRights, #AnimalRights, and #AIEthics (artificial intelligence) into a single phenomenon, Moral Circle Expansion, which is perhaps the most important project ever for the human species and sentient life. sciencedirect.com/science/ar…

New preprint by Jamie Harris & me reviews the 294 articles on the moral inclusion of AI. We find "widespread agreement among scholars that some artificial entities could warrant moral consideration." This motivates our work at @SentienceInst on #AIEthics. arxiv.org/abs/2102.04215

One week left to apply for our researcher position @SentienceInst! If you're a social scientist (e.g. psychology, management) interested in the ethics of emerging technologies (e.g. AI, cultured meat), we would love to hear from you. sentienceinstitute.org/resea…