Towards AI Welfare Science and Policies

• Main Authors: Soenke Ziesche, Roman Yampolskiy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-12-01
• Series: Big Data and Cognitive Computing
• Subjects: AI welfare science; AI welfare policies; sentiocentrism; antispeciesism; AI safety
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/3/1/2

In light of fast progress in the field of AI there is an urgent demand for AI policies. Bostrom et al., provide “a set of policy desiderata”, out of which this article attempts to contribute to the “interests of digital minds”. The focus is on two interests of potentially sentient digital minds: to avoid suffering and to have the freedom of choice about their deletion. Various challenges are considered, including the vast range of potential features of digital minds, the difficulties in assessing the interests and wellbeing of sentient digital minds, and the skepticism that such research may encounter. Prolegomena to abolish suffering of sentient digital minds as well as to measure and specify wellbeing of sentient digital minds are outlined by means of the new field of AI welfare science, which is derived from animal welfare science. The establishment of AI welfare science serves as a prerequisite for the formulation of AI welfare policies, which regulate the wellbeing of sentient digital minds. This article aims to contribute to sentiocentrism through inclusion, thus to policies for antispeciesism, as well as to AI safety, for which wellbeing of AIs would be a cornerstone.