Of course there’s lots of problems here (some which you outline well) but I think as AIs get smarter it may well be more accurate than with animals? At least they can tell you something, rather than us drawing long bows interpreting behavioral observations.
Fair point, Nick. I would just keep in mind there may be very different types of digital minds, and some types may not speak any human language. We can more easily understand chimps than shrimps. In addition, the types of digital minds driving the expected total welfare might not speak any human language. I think there is a case for keeping an eye out for something like digital soil animals or microorganisms, by which I mean simple AI agents or algorithms, at least for people caring about invertebrate welfare. On the other end of the spectrum, I am also open to just a few planet-size digital beings being the driver of expected total welfare.
Yea, unclear if these self-reports will be reliable, but I agree that this could be true (and I briefly mention something like it: “Broadly, AW has high tractability, enormous current scale, and stronger evidence of sentience—at least for now, since future experiments or engineering relevant to digital minds could change this.”
Of course there’s lots of problems here (some which you outline well) but I think as AIs get smarter it may well be more accurate than with animals? At least they can tell you something, rather than us drawing long bows interpreting behavioral observations.
Fair point, Nick. I would just keep in mind there may be very different types of digital minds, and some types may not speak any human language. We can more easily understand chimps than shrimps. In addition, the types of digital minds driving the expected total welfare might not speak any human language. I think there is a case for keeping an eye out for something like digital soil animals or microorganisms, by which I mean simple AI agents or algorithms, at least for people caring about invertebrate welfare. On the other end of the spectrum, I am also open to just a few planet-size digital beings being the driver of expected total welfare.
Yea, unclear if these self-reports will be reliable, but I agree that this could be true (and I briefly mention something like it: “Broadly, AW has high tractability, enormous current scale, and stronger evidence of sentience—at least for now, since future experiments or engineering relevant to digital minds could change this.”