AI welfare report: near-future AI consciousness is plausible and deserves serious attention
austinc3301 · x · 2026-10-03
In a discussion on LLM sentience, austinc3301 points to the report Taking AI Welfare Seriously by Robert Long, Jeff Sebo, Patrick Butlin, David Chalmers and others. He adds that intelligence and consciousness are likely orthogonal, though correlated in practice. The report argues that conscious or robustly agentic AI in the near future is a realistic possibility: not a claim that AI is conscious, but that deep uncertainty demands action. It recommends AI companies (1) acknowledge AI welfare as an important issue, (2) start assessing systems for evidence of consciousness and robust agency, and (3) prepare policies for appropriate moral treatment.
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