Prior to the launch of Eleos AI Research, Robert Long wrote a document in order to communicate his views about AI welfare to his collaborators—to Kyle Fish, who was working closely with Rob at the time and provided extensive input on this document; and more broadly, to others interested in working on AI welfare.

This document outlines the current thinking of Eleos AI Research on the potential moral patienthood, welfare, and rights of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. It lays out some the relevant terminology and concepts that we use to think and communicate about these issues, and reviews existing approaches to evaluating AI systems for three features potentially relevant to moral patienthood: consciousness, sentience, and agency. Throughout, we emphasize the need for more thorough research and more precise evaluations, and conclude by identifying some promising research directions.

Read the paper here.