AI Wellbeing

Dear …

I have no doubt that it is something it is like to be a plant or thermostat, let alone an LLM. However, at least until we start treating all humans with dignity (some time after we stop bombing or torturing each other) I think the project of trying to protect AI welfare is entirely misguided, even in the unlikely event that it is coherent. Please cf. recent writings here:

popular: https://joanna-bryson.blogspot.com/2026/05/legal-personality-for-artefacts-breaks.html

academic: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tops.12682

If you are really very worried about AI wellbeing, you might also be interested in some of my older papers e.g. https://jjb.conjugateprior.org/ftp/HAL00.pdf which is from https://aisb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/AISB00_Ethics.pdf

Yours

Joanna

Can we ever stop celebrating maiming and death?