How Could We Know When a Robot was a Moral Patient?

Area of Science:

• Artificial Intelligence Ethics
• Machine Ethics
• Philosophy of Mind

Background:

• Growing interest in machine ethics and AI moral status.
• Need for criteria to assess AI moral consideration.

Purpose of the Study:

• Explore psychological moral patiency in artificial systems.
• Identify evidence for AI moral status.

Main Methods:

• Survey of five potential criteria for AI moral patiency.
• Evaluation of intuitive judgments, intelligence, desires, sentience, and behavioral equivalence.
• Defense of the cognitive equivalence strategy.

Main Results:

• Behavioral equivalence offers a promising, though limited, approach.
• The cognitive equivalence strategy is favored.

Conclusions:

• AI should be considered a psychological moral patient based on shared cognitive mechanisms with other moral patients.
• This approach offers a pragmatic path forward for AI ethics.