The capacity for subjective experience, or sentience, is a defining feature of consciousness. An organism is considered sentient if “there is something it is like to be that organism.” 1 In his 2024 ...

Can artificial intelligence (AI) feel distress? Do lobsters suffer in a pot as it reaches a boil? Can a 12-week-old fetus feel pain? Ignore these questions and we potentially sanction a quiet, ...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to become sentient anywhere from never to sometime in the next decade or two. If robots do become sentient, how would we know? Are we disincentivized to ...

The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, can they suffer? —Jeremy Bentham, 1789 Source: Philip Tedeschi, with permission. It’s time to stop wondering if nonhuman animals (animals ...

With the sentience of vertebrates now enshrined in UK and EU law, is it time we rethought our relationship with fish? If you’ve ever had a pet, visited a zoo or watched wild animals at play, it’s ...

Artificial intelligence has progressed so rapidly that even some of the scientists responsible for many key developments are troubled by the pace of change. Earlier this year, more than 300 ...

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More The AI field is at a significant turning point. On the one hand, ...

Intelligence comes in many forms. Octopuses are highly intelligent—and completely unlike humans. In case you haven’t noticed, artificial intelligence systems have been behaving in increasingly ...

After a chimpanzee named Flint recently lost his mother, renowned primatologist Dr Jane Goodall wrote: the last short journey he made, pausing to rest every few feet, was to the very place where Flo’s ...