What will society think about AI consciousness? Lessons from the animal case
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How will society respond to the idea that artificial intelligence (AI) could be conscious? Drawing on lessons from perceptions of animal consciousness, we highlight psychological, social, and economic factors that shape perceptions of AI consciousness. These insights can inform emerging debates about AI moral status, ethical treatment, and future policy.
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Some researchers have argued that creating digital minds, or systems perceived as digital minds, could have profound moral implications including societal unrest and large-scale mistreatment.
“Some researchers have also argued that the creation of digital minds-or systems that people think are digital minds-could have profound moral implications such as societal unrest and the mistreatment of digital minds on a large scale (Caviola, 2025; Caviola et al., 2025; Fernandez, 2024; Schwitzgebel, 2023 a ; 2023 b ; Birch, 2024).”
From Futures with Digital Minds: Expert Forecasts in 2025 (2025) · cites this paper as Caviola et al., 2025
The Abstract says that perceived AI consciousness could profoundly shape norms and laws, and ‘The urgent need for more research’ says societal disagreement and tension appear likely. ‘Attitudes about AI may resemble attitudes about animals’ discusses biases toward potentially conscious AI and difficulty empathizing with large populations. These passages support serious social and ethical risks, but do not specifically argue that creating such systems could lead to societal unrest or large-scale mistreatment of digital minds. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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Cites
Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Science of Consciousness
Butlin, P., Long, R., Elmoznino, E., Bengio, Y., Birch, J., Constant, A., Deane, G., Fleming, S. M., Frith, C., Ji, X., et al. (2023) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2308.08708 · Cited by 196 · see citing works
Self-citationRethinking people’s conceptions of mental life
Weisman, K., Dweck, C. S., & Markman, E. M. (2017) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1704347114 · Cited by 182 · see citing works
Tests for consciousness in humans and beyond
Bayne, T., Seth, A. K., Massimini, M., Shepherd, J., Cleeremans, A., Fleming, S. M., Malach, R., Mattingley, J. B., Menon, D. K., Owen, A. M., et al. (2024) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2024.01.010 · Cited by 163 · see citing works
Conscious artificial intelligence and biological naturalism
Seth, A. K. (2026) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x25000032 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 6
- Birch, J. (2024) The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI, Oxford University Pre ss
- Chalmers, D.J. (2022) Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy, Penguin Books
- Long, R. et al. (2024) Taking AI welfare seriously. arXiv, Published online November 4, 2024. https://doi.org/10. 48550/arXiv.2411.00986 · DOI · Paper page
- Ladak, A. and Caviola, L. (2025) Digital sentience skepticism. PsyArXiv, Published online January 30, 2025. https://doi. org/10.31234/osf.io/wvbya_v1 · DOI
- Caviola, L. (2025) The societal response to potentially sen- tient AI. arXiv, Published online March 29, 2025. https:// doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2502.00388 · DOI
- Dreksler, N. et al. (2025) Subjective experience in AI sys- tems: what do AI researchers and the public believe? arXiv, Published online June 13, 2025. https://doi.org/ 10.48550/arXiv.2506.11945 Trends in Cognitive Sciences, August 2025, Vol. 29, No. 8 683 · DOI · Paper page
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Futures with Digital Minds: Expert Forecasts in 2025
Caviola, L., & Saad, B. (2025) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2508.00536 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationAre Attributions of Consciousness to AI Chatbots Epistemically Innocent?
Peters, U. (2026) · Minds and Machines · doi:10.1007/s11023-026-09795-8
- Authors
- Caviola, L., Sebo, J., & Birch, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- New York University (US)
- London School of Economics and Political Science (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Caviola, Lucius
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2025-08
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 681-683
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4411597296
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 1
- FWCI
- 12.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Longview Philanthropy
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Literary and Philosophical Studies
- Keywords
- artificial intelligence consciousness, animal consciousness, public perception of AI, moral status of AI, AI ethics, AI policy
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Humans
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