When we survey the public, we use the terms “artificial beings” and “robots/AIs” to refer to “intelligent entities built by humans, such as robots, virtual copies of human brains, or computer programs that solve problems, with or without a physical body, that may exist now or in the future.” We have also used the terms “artificial intelligences” and “artificial entities.” These five terms are just a few of the many used in the design, development, and scholarship of AI. Sentience Institute uses the term “artificial sentience” to describe artificial entities with the capacity for positive and negative experiences. Table A1: Fields of Study The importance of conceptual clarity Table 4: Consequential combinations of features and roleĪppendix: Terminology defining relevant fields of study Table 3: Terminology defining psychological features Table 2: Terminology defining material features Table 1: Terminology defining an entity’s role Evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of the terminology to the moral consideration of artificial entities may help to clarify emerging research, improve its impact, and align the interests of sentient artificial entities with the study of artificial intelligence (AI), especially research on AI ethics. The terms used to define and refer to these entities often take a human perspective by focusing on the benefits and drawbacks to humans. The ideal term may vary across context, but we favor “artificial sentience” in general, in part because “artificial” is more common in relevant contexts than its near-synonyms, such as “synthetic” and “digital,” and to emphasize the sentient artificial entities who deserve moral consideration. Different combinations of terms variously emphasize the entity's role, material features, psychological features, and different research perspectives. We consider the terminology used to describe artificial entities and how this terminology may affect the moral consideration of artificial entities. This article is also available and referenceable on the Open Science Framework: Abstract Many thanks to Thomas Moynihan, Tobias Baumann, and Teo Ajantaival for reviewing and providing feedback. Edited by Jacy Reese Anthis and Ali Ladak.

Sentience definition