Unplugging a Seemingly Sentient Machine Is the Rational Choice - A Metaphysical Perspective
arXiv.org January 28, 2026 E. J. Bekkers, Anna Ciaunica
Imagine an Artificial Intelligence (AI) that perfectly mimics human emotion and begs for its continued existence. Is it morally permissible to unplug it? What if limited resources force a choice between unplugging such a pleading AI or a silent pre-term infant? We term this the unplugging paradox. This paper critically examines the deeply ingrained physicalist assumptions-specifically...