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In this interview Jeff Sebo discusses the ethical implications of artificial intelligence and why we must take the possibility of AI sentience seriously now. He explores challenges in measuring moral significance, the risks of dismissing AI as mere tools, and strategies to mitigate suffering in artificial systems. Drawing on themes from the paper ‘Taking AI Welfare Seriously’ and his up and coming book ‘The Moral Circle’, Sebo examines how to detect markers of sentience in AI systems, and what to do about it. We explore ethical considerations through the lens of population ethics, AI governance (especially important in an AI arms race), and discuss indirect approaches detecting sentience, as well as AI aiding in human welfare. This rigorous conversation probes the foundations of consciousness, moral relevance, and the future of ethical AI design.

Paper ‘Taking AI Welfare Seriously’: https://eleosai.org/papers/20241030_T… — The Moral Circle by Jeff Sebo: https://www.amazon.com.au/Moral-Circl?tag=lifeboatfound-20?tag=lifeboatfound-20… Jeff’s Website: https://jeffsebo.net/ Eleos AI: https://eleosai.org/ Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:40 Implications of failing to take AI welfare seriously 04:43 Engaging the disengaged 08:18 How Blake Lemoine’s ‘disclosure’ influenced public discourse 12:45 Will people take AI sentience seriously if it is seen tools or commodities? 16:19 Importance, neglectedness and tractability (INT) 20:40 Tractability: Difficulties in measuring moral significance — i.e. by aggregate brain mass 22:25 Population ethics and the repugnant conclusion 25:16 Pascal’s mugging: low probabilities of infinite or astronomically large costs and rewards 31:21 Distinguishing real high stakes causes from infinite utility scams 33:45 The nature of consciousness, and what to measure in looking for moral significance in AI 39:35 Varieties of views on what’s important. Computational functionalism 44:34 AI arms race dynamics and the need for governance 48:57 Indirect approaches to achieving ideal solutions — Indirect normativity 51:38 The marker method — looking for morally relevant behavioral & anatomical markers in AI 56:39 What to do about suffering in AI? 1:00:20 Building in fault tolerance to noxious experience into AI systems — reverse wireheading 1:05:15 Will AI be more friendly if it has sentience? 1:08:47 Book: The Moral Circle by Jeff Sebo 1:09:46 What kind of world could be achieved 1:12:44 Homeostasis, self-regulation and self-governance in sentient AI systems 1:16:30 AI to help humans improve mood and quality of experience 1:18:48 How to find out more about Jeff Sebo’s research 1:19:12 How to get involved Many thanks for tuning in! Please support SciFuture by subscribing and sharing! Have any ideas about people to interview? Want to be notified about future events? Any comments about the STF series? Please fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1mr9P… Kind regards, Adam Ford

Book — The Moral Circle by Jeff Sebo: https://www.amazon.com.au/Moral-Circl?tag=lifeboatfound-20?tag=lifeboatfound-20…

Jeff’s Website: https://jeffsebo.net/

Continue reading “Taking AI Welfare Seriously” | >

Ancient texts warn of love turning into hatred, as seen in stories like Cain and Abel or “Et tu, Brute?” This talk explores the neurobiology of hatred based on the biology of love: the oxytocin system, attachment networks, and biobehavioral synchrony, which mature through mother-infant bonding and later support group solidarity and out-group hostility. Using this model, we developed Tools of Dialogue© for Israeli and Palestinian youth. After 8 sessions, participants showed reduced hostility, increased empathy, hormonal changes (lower cortisol, higher oxytocin), and lasting attitudes of compromise. Seven years later, these changes supported their peacebuilding efforts, showing how social synchrony can transform hatred into reciprocity and cooperation. Recorded on 02/14/2025. [Show ID: 40386]

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Learn more about anthropogeny on CARTA’s website:
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Continue reading “CARTA: The Biology of Hatred: Why Love Turns to Hatred and What We Can Do About It” | >

🔍 Overview: Join Robert Plomin and me as we dive deep into the fascinating world of behavioural genetics, exploring how our DNA shapes who we are, the power of environment, and whether we can rewrite our genetic destiny.

🤝 Support The Show 🤘
Locals: https://samueldevis.locals.com/
PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/samue… https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/a… 🗣️ Highlights [Highlight 1]: How Does Genetics Shape Who We Are? [Highlight 2]: What Role Does the Environment Truly Play in Defining Us? [Highlight 3]: Are We Hardwired by Our DNA, or Can We Rewrite Our Destiny? 🕒 Timestamps 0:00 — Introduction 1:57 — Robert Plomin, Philosophy and Psychology 4:12 — Why Behavioural Genetics? 8:21 — Publishing Blueprint 14:51 — Heritability 30:15 — The Basics of DNA 34:34 — Genetic Variances and Binary Myths 41:21 — Labels and Certificates 45:33 — Nonshared Environments and The Nature of Nurture 1:00:51 — Self-Selecting Within Environments 1:07:04 — Group Difference and Heritability 1:13:03 — Academic Success: DNA vs. Schooling 1:21:17 — Ethical Considerations 1:27:01 — Moral Responsibility and Accountability 1:31:23 — The Future of Genetics 1:42:38 — Genetic Trajectories and Random Events 1:45:17 — The DNA Revolution 1:48:21 — Closing Remarks 📚 Episode Resources (affiliate links where possible — thanks!) Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are by Robert Plomin: https://amzn.to/3T9htYp King’s College London: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/robert-p… Common Disorders are Quantitative Traits by Robert Plomin: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19859… Gattaca (1997): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/ 🌐 Connect Linktree: https://linktr.ee/samueldevis89 Substack: https://thesocraticsessions.substack… Twitter: / samueldevis89 Facebook Page: / thesocraticsessions Instagram: / samueldevis89 Goodreads: / samuel-devis Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/samueldevis8… Threads: https://www.threads.net/@samueldevis89 LinkedIn Page: / thesocraticsessions 🎧 Subscribe 📺 YouTube: / @samueldevis89 Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/SamuelDevis89 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast… Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6lOdYbN… Audible: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Socr… Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/3… Other Podcast Platforms: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh… 📷 Gear (affiliate links — thanks!) Camera (Sony A6400): https://amzn.to/46jehNn Lens (Sigma 16mm): https://amzn.to/47DfiRn Audio Interface (Focusrite Scarlett 4i4): https://amzn.to/47lJzEP Microphone Amplifier (Cloudlifter CL-1): https://amzn.to/3uou7Jq Mic (RØDE PodMic): https://amzn.to/3sJFUBE Lights (Elgato Key Light Air): https://amzn.to/3TZMgYX Colour Back Lighting (Govee LED Floor Lamp): https://amzn.to/47EGSOf Recording Software (Riverside. FM): https://www.tinyurl.com/riversidesam89 👍 Support: Like, subscribe, and share to fuel the quest for understanding. 🔔 Stay Tuned: Tap the bell for instant notifications. 📣 Join the Talk: Share your thoughts using #TheSocraticSessions. 🚀 Thanks for Tuning In! Let’s keep the conversation going. #genetics #nature #nurture #dna #heritability #genome #biology #philosophy.
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🗣️ Highlights.
[Highlight 1]: How Does Genetics Shape Who We Are?
[Highlight 2]: What Role Does the Environment Truly Play in Defining Us?
[Highlight 3]: Are We Hardwired by Our DNA, or Can We Rewrite Our Destiny?

🕒 Timestamps.

Continue reading “Behavioural Genetics: DNA & Individual Differences | Robert Plomin | The Socratic Sessions | Ep #28” | >

Humans have been selectively breeding cats and dogs for thousands of years to make more desirable pets. A new startup called the Los Angeles Project aims to speed up that process with genetic engineering to make glow-in-the-dark rabbits, hypoallergenic cats and dogs, and possibly, one day, actual unicorns.

The Los Angeles Project is the brainchild of biohacker Josie Zayner, who in 2017 publicly injected herself with the gene-editing tool Crispr during a conference in San Francisco and livestreamed it. “I want to help humans genetically modify themselves,” she said at the time. She’s also given herself a fecal transplant and a DIY Covid vaccine and is the founder and CEO of The Odin, a company that sells home genetic-engineering kits.

Now, Zayner wants to create the next generation of pets. “I think, as a human species, it’s kind of our moral prerogative to level up animals,” she says.

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Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including LLM-based conversational agents such as ChatGPT, have become increasingly widespread. These tools are now used by countless individuals worldwide for both professional and personal purposes.

Some users are now also asking AI agents to answer everyday questions, some of which could have ethical and moral nuances. Providing these agents with the ability to discern between what is generally considered ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, so that they can be programmed to only provide ethical and morally sound responses, is thus of the utmost importance.

Researchers at the University of Washington, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and other institutes in the United States recently carried out an experiment exploring the possibility of equipping AI agents with a machine equivalent of human moral judgment.

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I presented these slides (PDF and images below) during the Workshop on Philosophy and Ethics of Brain Emulation (January 28th-29th, 2025) at the Mimir Center for Long Term Futures Research in Stockholm, Sweden. In my talk, I explored how various biological phenomena beyond standard neuronal electrophysiology may exert noticeable effects on the computations underlying subjective experiences. I emphasized the importance of the large range of timescales that such phenomena operate over (milliseconds to years). If we are to create emulations which think and feel like human beings, we must carefully consider the numerous tunable regulatory mechanisms the brain uses to enhance the complexity of its computational repertoire.

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Dr. Masayo Takahashi graduated from Kyoto University’s Faculty of Medicine in 1986. In 1992, she completed her Ph.D. in Visual Pathology at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Medicine. She first worked as a clinician, but later became interested in research following her studies in the United States in 1995. In 2005, her lab became the first in the world to successfully differentiate neural retina from embryonic stem cells. She is currently the project leader of the Laboratory for Retinal Regeneration at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB).

Recently in Japan they restored vision of three people using puliportent stem cells.

Then, in March 2017, Dr. Takahashi and her team made another important step forward. While the 2014 surgery had used cells generated from the patient’s own tissues, Dr. Takahashi and her team succeeded this time in the world’s first transplantation of RPE cells generated from iPS cells that originated from another person (called “allogeneic transplantation”) to treat a patient with wet-type AMD. Currently, the patient is being monitored for the possibility of rejection, which is a risk of allogeneic transplantation. Regarding the significance of the operation, Dr. Takahashi explains that “allogeneic transplantation substantially reduces the time and cost required in producing RPE cells, creating opportunities for even more patients to undergo surgeries. Hearing patients’ eager expectations firsthand when working as a clinician has also been a significant motivation.”

Dr. Takahashi’s team is currently making preparations for clinical studies that will target retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary eye disease, by transplanting photoreceptor cells. “Having my mind set on wanting to see applications of iPS cells in treatments as quickly as possible, I have been actively involved in the creation of the regulations for their practical applications in regenerative medicine. In Japan, where clinical studies and clinical trials can be conducted at the same time, there is significant merit in the fact that research can be carried out by doctors who also work in medical settings. This helps ensure that they proceed with a sense of responsibility and strong ethics. Our advanced clinical studies have attracted the attention of researchers working in regenerative medicine in various countries. I intend to maintain a rapid pace of research so that we can treat the illnesses of as many patients as possible.”

Continue reading “IPS Cells Give New Hope Against Eye Diseases / The Government of Japan” | >

Professor Graham Oppy discusses the Turing Test, whether AI can understand, whether it can be more ethical than humans, moral realism, AI alignment, incoherence in human value, indirect normativity and much more.

Chapters:
0:00 The Turing test.
6:06 Agentic LLMs.
6:42 Concern about non-anthropocentric intelligence.
7:57 Machine understanding & the Chinese Room argument.
10:21 AI ‘grokking’ — seemingly understanding stuff.
13:06 AI and fact checking.
15:01 Alternative tests for assessing AI capability.
17:35 Moral Turing Tests — Can AI be highly moral?
18:37 Philosophy’s role in AI development.
21:51 Can AI help progress philosophy?
23:48 Increasing percision in the language of philosophy via technoscience.
24:54 Should philosophers be more involved in AI development?
26:59 Moral realism & fining universal principles.
31:02 Empiricism & moral truth.
32:09 Challenges to moral realism.
33:09 Truth and facts.
36:26 Are suffering and pleasure real?
37:54 Signatures of pain.
39:25 AI leaning from morally relevant features of reality.
41:22 AI self-improvement.
42:36 AI mind reading.
43:46 Can AI learn to care via moral realism?
45:42 Bias in AI training data.
46:26 Metaontology.
48:27 Is AI conscious?
49:45 Can AI help resolve moral disagreements?
51:07 ‘Little’ philosophical progress.
54:09 Does the human condition prevent or retard wide spread value convergence?
55:04 Difficulties in AI aligning to incoherent human values.
56:30 Empirically informed alignment.
58:41 Training AI to be humble.
59:42 Paperclip maximizers.
1:00:41 Indirect specification — avoiding AI totalizing narrow and poorly defined goals.
1:02:35 Humility.
1:03:55 Epistemic deference to ‘jupiter-brain’ AI
1:05:27 Indirect normativity — verifying jupiter-brain oracle AI’s suggested actions.
1:08:25 Ideal observer theory.
1:10:45 Veil of ignorance.
1:13:51 Divine psychology.
1:16:21 The problem of evil — an indifferent god?
1:17:21 Ideal observer theory and moral realism.

See Wikipedia article on Graham Oppy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_… https://twitter.com/oppygraham #AI #philosophy #aisafety #ethics Many thanks for tuning in! Please support SciFuture by subscribing and sharing! Have any ideas about people to interview? Want to be notified about future events? Any comments about the STF series? Please fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1mr9P… Kind regards, Adam Ford

x: https://twitter.com/oppygraham.

#AI #philosophy #aisafety #ethics.

Continue reading “Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence — Graham Oppy” | >

What does it take for a kind, compassionate, and ethical person to commit acts of cruelty? Why do ordinary individuals sometimes cross the line into darkness?

In this video, we explore the psychological forces behind human behavior, delving into Philip Zimbardo’s groundbreaking Stanford Prison Experiment, Stanley Milgram’s obedience studies, and historical events that reveal the thin line between good and evil. From the power of authority and dehumanization to the roles society imposes, discover the mechanisms that can corrupt even the most virtuous among us.

But this isn’t just about others—it’s about you. Could you resist these forces? Are you aware of how they operate in your daily life?

By the end, you’ll learn practical strategies to recognize and resist these influences, uncovering your potential for moral courage, empathy, and heroism. This video will challenge your perspective on human nature and inspire you to act with integrity in a world where the battle between good and evil is ever-present.

Continue reading “Why Good People Turn Into Monsters” | >

Teaching healthy lifestyle behaviors to very young children is foundational to their future habits. Previous evidence suggests that philosophical thinking (PT) can help children develop moral values, cognitive skills, and decision-making abilities.

A recent study published in BMC Public Health explores the role of PT in assisting preschoolers to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviors. Some of these habits include being physically active, eating healthy, washing hands properly, having respect for one’s body, being aware of one’s needs, feelings, abilities, and responsibilities, getting sufficient sleep, and sharing one’s thoughts with others.

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