Narrow Results

Insofar as phenomenal affect and self-awareness imply a capacity for suffering, the position of an AI system that is conscious and that, furthermore, is constrained to obey its human “masters” is precisely equivalent to that of a slave. Unfortunately, given the presumed functional advantages conferred by consciousness in learning and in the control of behavior, it is likely that conscious AI systems will be developed and deployed by corporate entities, which typically have little or no regard for the ethical consequences of their ventures. Both for humans, who are subjected to preventable suffering by the very nature of the dominant political-economic system of capitalism, and for conscious machines, if they indeed become a reality, the only hope for bettering their fate lies in promoting universal solidarity and class-consciousness aimed at eventual liberation.