Artificial Consciousness Is Morally Irrelevant
AJOB Neuroscience April 3, 2023 B. Blackshaw
Because consciousness is central to moral status, identifying it in machines would argue for granting them moral consideration. However, from a third-person perspective, determining whether an artificial intelligence is conscious is extremely difficult. This commentary argues that the epistemological question of machine consciousness cannot be conclusively answered, making artificial consciousness morally irrelevant in practice. The author also contends that avoiding development of morally relevant machine consciousness is impractical. Instead, artificial intelligences should be designed to communicate, allowing their behavior to guide assignment of an artificial moral status—treating them as if they had moral status equivalent to a living organism with similar behavior.