[soco]

Why should I care whether AI is conscious or not? If they eradicate me consciously or by algorithm, am I less dead? Or do I get in a better heaven? We all agree that cows are conscious, where does it help them? We still eat them and they still try to stomp us... so for all means except pure philosophy, debating consciousness is useless. And I'm not a philosopher.

[bheadmaster]

It's just an interesting question, I suppose.

Although it also has wide implications for ethics - the concept of human rights relies on empathy. And if AI can experience the world like a human does, and feel pleasure and pain, then either AI deserves rights, or humans don't. Or we just decide that only humans have rights because we are humans and we say so, in which case we're no better than Nazis.

[soco]

We already have animal rights - because we said so and because it is agreed they feel pleasure and pain. Yet we still eat them and still not let them vote (or push the nuclear button). Although I completely fail to see why would we program (except for fun) the AI to feel pleasure and pain, let's say so for the argument. So, what kind of rights should it get?