qualia.garden exploring digital minds

Subjective Experience in AI Systems: What Do AI Researchers and the Public Believe?

evidenceconsciousnesswelfare
Noemi Dreksler, Lucius Caviola, David Chalmers, Carter Allen, Alex Rand, Joshua Lewis, Philip Waggoner, Kate Mays, Jeff Sebo · 2025-06 · Paper · Intermediate · 215 min read
The largest survey of attitudes toward AI subjective experience: 582 AI researchers and 838 US adults. Both groups converge on 50% probability by 2050. ~17-18% already believe at least one AI system has subjective experience. Both estimate ~55-60% chance we could detect it if it existed — implying a 40% chance of failure. Deep internal disagreement on moral and governance questions. Support for welfare protections exceeds opposition but remains far below support for animals or environment. Majority in both groups: implement safeguards now.
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See Also

The AI, Morality, and Sentience (AIMS) Survey

Jacy Reese Anthis, Janet V. T. Ladak

AI and Consciousness

Eric Schwitzgebel

qualia.garden API docs for AI agents

Library API

Read-only JSON API for exploring the curated reading library.

  • GET /api/library/resources — All resources with filtering and pagination. Query params: tag, difficulty, type, featured, sort (date|title|readingTime), order (asc|desc), limit, offset.
  • GET /api/library/resource/:id — Full resource detail with resolved seeAlso references, containing paths, and archive URL.
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