Towards AI Welfare Science and Policies

摘要

In light of fast progress in the field of AI there is an urgent demand for AI policies. Bostromet 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 areconsidered, including the vast range of potential features of digital minds, the difficulties in assessingthe interests and wellbeing of sentient digital minds, and the skepticism that such research mayencounter. Prolegomena to abolish suffering of sentient digital minds as well as to measure andspecify wellbeing of sentient digital minds are outlined by means of the new field of AI welfarescience, which is derived from animal welfare science. The establishment of AI welfare science servesas a prerequisite for the formulation of AI welfare policies, which regulate the wellbeing of sentientdigital minds. This article aims to contribute to sentiocentrism through inclusion, thus to policies forantispeciesism, as well as to AI safety, for which wellbeing of AIs would be a cornerstone.