Principles for Responsible AI Consciousness Research

Organizations involved in AI research should establish principles and policies to guide research, deployment, and public communication concerning consciousness, as it may be possible to build conscious AI systems now or in the near future. Conscious AI systems would arguably deserve moral consideration, and large numbers could be created and caused to suffer. Even if an organization chooses not to study AI consciousness, it still needs policies because developers risk inadvertently creating conscious entities. Five principles are proposed concerning research objectives, procedures, knowledge sharing, and public communications, with a call for voluntary public commitments.

Study at a glance

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.