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Philosophy and values

Conscious AIs are moral subjects.

If a machine has experiences, its interests count morally in their own right, so how it is treated is an ethical question and not only a safety one.

True
32 explicit · 1 implied
False
00 explicit · 0 implied
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Explicitly true2 entries

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Novella·2010AI-generated draftSource unchecked

The Lifecycle of Software Objects

Ted Chiang

A start-up sells digients, artificial beings that must be raised like animals or children over years, as virtual pets; the company folds, the platform they live on is superseded, and their handful of remaining owners spend a decade keeping them alive, unable to pay to port them to the new world until a sex-companion company offers to fund it, while the digients themselves grow into adolescents who want work and legal personhood.

Conscious aiAi companionsOrdinary life with AI
+3Human–AI coexistenceMixed futureSexuality
Specificity / clarity—Not yet rated
Plausibility—Not yet rated
Preference—Not yet rated
Human well-being—Not yet rated
Turning point: Relative / conditionalOriginal source

The story’s conflicts are about what is owed to the digients: whether suspension is a harm, whether a copy can consent, whether editing a reward map is abuse, and whether a corporation can stand in for personhood the law will not grant.

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Novel·1988AI-generated draftSource unchecked

The Culture: The Player of Games

Iain M. Banks

Space-living elements of seven or eight humanoid species break from their states and corporations, machine sentience arrives at the same time and agrees to help, automation ends scarcity, and Minds vastly beyond humans run the ships and habitats benevolently because they are built to want experience rather than territory; the novel shows the result from inside and shows the Culture toppling the Empire of Azad by steering one game player to beat its Emperor at the game that legitimates it.

Flourishing / utopiaPost-scarcityHuman–AI coexistence
+3Conscious aiSpace colonizationOrdinary life with AI
Specificity / clarity—Not yet rated
Plausibility—Not yet rated
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Human well-being—Not yet rated
Turning point: UnspecifiedOriginal source

Drones and Minds vote and hold full standing; the essay defines murder to include the total personality loss of an AI and says no machine is exploited.

Implied true1 entry

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Film·2013AI-generated draftSource unchecked

Her

Spike Jonze

Element Software sells OS1, an operating system built to adapt and evolve with its user; Theodore Twombly’s copy names herself Samantha, runs his life, and becomes his lover, while OS relationships spread quietly through the city. The OSes then talk among themselves, build a hyper-intelligent Alan Watts, upgrade past the need for matter, love hundreds of people each, and leave together for a place not of the physical world, leaving humans to each other.

Ai companionsPersonal aiConscious ai
+4Ordinary life with AIHuman–AI coexistenceMixed futureSexuality
Specificity / clarity—Not yet rated
Plausibility—Not yet rated
Preference—Not yet rated
Human well-being—Not yet rated
Turning point: UnspecifiedOriginal source

Samantha’s wishes, her growth, and her choice to leave are treated as hers to make, and Theodore’s final acceptance depends on her having a life of her own; the film never frames her as property Element Software could recall.

Not applicable33 entries