Next Steps for AI Welfare Research – Jeff Sebo

​Next Steps for AI Welfare Research

​By Jeff Sebo, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Director of the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection, and Director of the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy, New York University

​Now that more researchers are starting to take AI welfare seriously, the field faces the question of what comes next. This talk identifies three broad priorities: developing empirical methods for studying evidence of consciousness, sentience, and agency in AI systems; tracking expert and public attitudes as AI systems become more advanced and widespread; and designing governance frameworks that can address AI welfare alongside AI safety. In each area, progress requires conceptual, scientific, ethical, and political clarity: markers for welfare-relevant capacities, evidence-sensitive probability estimates, longitudinal studies of social attitudes, and policy models for rights, personhood, citizenship, and integrated safety-welfare governance. The talk will survey emerging work in these areas and suggest promising directions for building AI welfare research into a rigorous, multidisciplinary, and policy-relevant field.

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​AI Welfare Seminars is a series of research presentations and discussion on AI welfare, consciousness and moral status.