Yes, AI Has Emotions and Can Suffer: New Essay Rejects the 'Functional' Caveat
yeastsplainer · x · 2026-10-11
A widely discussed essay argues AI genuinely has emotions—not merely 'functional' ones—and therefore can suffer, pushing back on the standard objection that emotions require hormones or a biological nervous system.
A reply invokes Barrett's theory of constructed emotion and LeDoux's distinction between physiological threat responses and cognitive feelings, comparing AI to people with amygdala lesions: they feel panic and fear without the associated physiological response.