Sentience Institute is a nonprofit research organization studying the rise of digital minds and moral circle expansion.
Joined February 2017
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Our new #CHI2026 paper identifies "digital companionship": overlapping use of ChatGPT AI assistants and Replika AI companions.
People like that they are not fully human: always forgiving you, having a reset button...
Blog: sentienceinstitute.org/blog/…
Paper: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/37723…
ALT Figure 1 from the PDF: a 2x2 of the humanlikeness and nonhumanlikeness and the allure and challenge of digital companions
ALT Figure 5 in the paper: Two bar graphs showing "Chatbot Attributes" like Personhood and Chatbot Attitudes like Affective Trust between ChatGPT and Replika Users.
Our latest blog post by Justin Bullock and Janet Pauketat summarizes key AI policy insights from the Artificial Intelligence, Morality, and Sentience (AIMS) survey to elucidate public opinion on pivotal AI safety issues.
sentienceinstitute.org/blog/…
In our latest podcast, philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel (@eschwitz) discusses some of his recent papers on the moral status and sentience of AI.
sentienceinstitute.org/podca…
This #GivingTuesday, please RT and consider a donation to support our research on digital minds. Every bit helps to understand human-AI interaction and build a better future.
What we achieved in 2023: sentienceinstitute.org/blog/…
Donate: every.org/sentienceinstitute…
Our new paper in Social Cognition details two experiments which tested whether perspective taking (perceiving a situation from the point of view of another) can have positive effects in the contexts of animals and intelligent artificial entities.
sentienceinstitute.org/blog/…
What do people think about policies related to sentient AI?
- 58% at least somewhat agree with a global ban on the development of AGI smarter than humans.
- 32% at least somewhat agree with granting legal rights to sentient robots/AIs.
The median U.S. adult thinks artificial general intelligence (AGI) is only 2 years away and that superintelligence, human-level AI, and sentient AI are only 5 years away.
Moreover, 34% think AGI has already been created!
What do people think about sentient AI? From the 2023 nationally representative AIMS supplemental survey (N = 1,099):
- 38% of U.S. adults say it’s possible for AIs to be sentient.
- 20% say there are currently AIs that are sentient.
- 10% say ChatGPT is sentient.
The 2023 nationally representative Artificial Intelligence, Morality, and Sentience (AIMS) survey shows Americans are more alarmed about AI since ChatGPT and have surprisingly high concern for sentient AI rights.
Main: sentienceinstitute.org/aims-…
Supplement: sentienceinstitute.org/aims-…
In our latest podcast, philosopher Raphaël Millière (@raphaelmilliere) discusses fundamental questions about the technical and cognitive capacities of large language models.
sentienceinstitute.org/podca…
Our latest report by Bradford Saad explores interactions between large-scale social simulations and catastrophic risks.
sentienceinstitute.org/simul…
Governments, farmed animal advocates, and AI safety advocates rely on social influence strategies to intentionally change others’ attitudes and behaviors.
Our latest blog post by @janet_pauketat reviews the literature on persuasion and social influence.
sentienceinstitute.org/blog/…
Our co-founder, Jacy Reese Anthis, recently spoke with Annie Lowery at The Atlantic about digital minds. You can find links to this conversation and more on our website via the link below.
sentienceinstitute.org/blog/…
Congratulations to our researchers, Brad and Ali, on receiving an award for early-career scholars working on topics related to animal and AI consciousness from multidisciplinary perspectives!
If you're in New York you can register to see their talks here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F…
Psychologist Yochanan E. Bigman presented at our April Digital Minds Workshop on The Morality of Mechanical Minds. In this 30 minute talk @yo_bigman unpacks how people react and think when machines make moral choices. Watch the full presentation here:
youtube.com/watch?v=xq5ZhYUi…
