by Albert Major

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

AI ETHICS AND MORAL STATUS

KEY PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTS

1. Qualia

• Definition: Subjective, conscious experiences that have "aboutness"
• Key characteristics:
  • Personal and subjective in nature
  • Tied to conscious experience
  • Cannot be directly shared or compared between individuals
• Examples:
  • How different people experience colors
  • Individual perception of taste (e.g., coffee)
  • Personal experience of pain
  • Emotional feelings
• Philosophical challenges:
  • Difficult to measure or verify in others
  • Cannot be fully separated from consciousness
  • Debated whether it can exist without consciousness

2. Substrate

• Definition: The foundational material or system on which something operates
• Types:
  • Physical substrates (e.g., silicon chips, biological neurons)
  • Virtual/abstract substrates (e.g., software platforms)
• Relevance to AI:
  • Connected to Searle's arguments about consciousness
  • Questions about whether different substrates can support consciousness
  • Debate about whether substrate matters for moral status

3. Sentience

• Definition: Capacity to experience qualia and have subjective experiences
• Key aspects:
  • Ability to feel and experience sensations
  • Capacity for suffering
  • Basic awareness of environment
• Relationship to consciousness:
  • Closely intertwined but potentially distinct
  • Can exist at different levels (e.g., animals vs humans)
  • May not require complex reasoning abilities

4. Sapience

• Definition: Capacities associated with higher intelligence