Updated: Jan 16, 2026
Digital minds are artificial systems, from advanced AIs to potential future brain emulations, that could morally matter for their own sake, owing to their potential for conscious experience, suffering, or other morally relevant mental states. Both cognitive science and the philosophy of mind can as yet offer no definitive answers as to whether present or near-future digital minds possess morally relevant mental states. Though, a majority of experts surveyed estimate at least fifty percent odds that AI systems with subjective experience could emerge by 2050, while public expresses broad uncertainty.
The lack of clarity leaves open the risk of severe moral catastrophe:
- We could mistakenly underattribute moral standing; failing to give consideration
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