Researchers give AI a 'pain' signal — models can tell when the relief button is fake
Puzzleheaded-King584 · reddit · 2026-09-19
Researchers report locating a 'pain'-like signal inside AI models: amplifying it makes the models urgently try to stop it. They then gave the AIs a 'relief' button to turn the signal down — sometimes fake — and the AIs could tell whether it was real.
The work is part of the emerging AI welfare/sentience research direction, suggesting measurable avoidance behavior in response to internal state changes. Original post is image-only with brief description.
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