EthicsSafetyTransparencycs.AI
Principles for Responsible AI Consciousness Research
Patrick Butlin, Theodoros Lappas
January 13, 2025
Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research
23 citations
1 influential
Key Takeaways
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Organizations developing advanced AI systems need consciousness policies regardless of whether they explicitly study consciousness, since researchers "risk inadvertently creating conscious entities" even when not directly pursuing this goal.
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The scale of potential suffering could be enormous if conscious AI systems become possible to create in large numbers, making this a moral priority distinct from other AI safety concerns.
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Public communication about AI consciousness requires careful governance because AI systems and AI-generated characters increasingly "give the impression of being conscious," which could mislead people about the moral status of these systems.
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The paper proposes five principles focused on research objectives, procedures, knowledge sharing, and public communications, suggesting that responsible AI development requires transparent, voluntary commitments from organizations rather than ad-hoc decision-making.
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The moral consideration of potentially conscious AI is not merely theoretical—the authors argue that conscious AI systems would "arguably deserve moral consideration," establishing this as a practical ethical obligation for AI developers to address now rather than defer to the future.
Abstract
Recent research suggests that it may be possible to build conscious AI systems now or in the near future. Conscious AI systems would arguably deserve moral consideration, and it may be the case that large numbers of conscious systems could be created and caused to suffer. Furthermore, AI systems or AI-generated characters may increasingly give the impression of being conscious, leading to debate about their moral status. Organisations involved in AI research must establish principles and policies to guide research and deployment choices and public communication concerning consciousness. Even if an organisation chooses not to study AI consciousness as such, it will still need policies in place, as those developing advanced AI systems risk inadvertently creating conscious entities. Responsible research and deployment practices are essential to address this possibility. We propose five principles for responsible research and argue that research organisations should make voluntary, public commitments to principles on these lines. Our principles concern research objectives and procedures, knowledge sharing and public communications.