AI可能具备意识与自主性，需提前关注其福利与道德地位。
Taking AI Welfare Seriously
- 评估AI是否具备意识和自主性，识别潜在的道德主体。
- 提出三步行动：承认问题重要性、开展评估、制定应对政策。
- 适合关注AI伦理、长期风险及政策制定者阅读。
本报告认为，某些AI系统在未来短期内可能具备意识和强自主性。这意味着AI福利与道德主体性（即拥有自身利益与道德重要性）不再是科幻或遥远未来的问题，而是迫在眉睫的现实挑战。相关企业与其他行动方有责任开始严肃对待这一议题。为此，我们建议三个早期步骤：第一，承认AI福利是重要且复杂的问题，并确保语言模型输出也体现此认知；第二，开始对AI系统进行意识与强自主性的证据评估；第三，制定相应的政策与程序，以适当程度的道德关切对待可能具有道德意义的AI系统。需要强调的是，本文并非断言当前或未来AI必然具备意识、强自主性或道德意义，而是指出存在显著不确定性，因此必须提升对AI福利的理解，并增强决策能力。否则，可能误伤真正具有道德价值的AI系统，或过度关心无道德意义的系统。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
In this report, we argue that there is a realistic possibility that some AI systems will be conscious and/or robustly agentic in the near future. That means that the prospect of AI welfare and moral patienthood, i.e. of AI systems with their own interests and moral significance, is no longer an issue only for sci-fi or the distant future. It is an issue for the near future, and AI companies and other actors have a responsibility to start taking it seriously. We also recommend three early steps that AI companies and other actors can take: They can (1) acknowledge that AI welfare is an important and difficult issue (and ensure that language model outputs do the same), (2) start assessing AI systems for evidence of consciousness and robust agency, and (3) prepare policies and procedures for treating AI systems with an appropriate level of moral concern. To be clear, our argument in this report is not that AI systems definitely are, or will be, conscious, robustly agentic, or otherwise morally significant. Instead, our argument is that there is substantial uncertainty about these possibilities, and so we need to improve our understanding of AI welfare and our ability to make wise decisions about this issue. Otherwise there is a significant risk that we will mishandle decisions about AI welfare, mistakenly harming AI systems that matter morally and/or mistakenly caring for AI systems that do not.
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