Engineering Sentience

TL;DR

This paper proposes a detailed, functional definition of machine sentience that combines computational and subjective aspects, aiming to guide the design and detection of sentient AI systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, detailed functional framework for AI sentience, integrating subjective qualities with computational signals, and suggests implementation pathways.

Findings

Sentience requires assertoric and qualitative sensory signals.

A functional, computational definition of sentience is proposed.

Potential implementation methods are sketched out.

Abstract

We spell out a definition of sentience that may be useful for designing and building it in machines. We propose that for sentience to be meaningful for AI, it must be fleshed out in functional, computational terms, in enough detail to allow for implementation. Yet, this notion of sentience must also reflect something essentially 'subjective', beyond just having the general capacity to encode perceptual content. For this specific functional notion of sentience to occur, we propose that certain sensory signals need to be both assertoric (persistent) and qualitative. To illustrate the definition in more concrete terms, we sketch out some ways for potential implementation, given current technology. Understanding what it takes for artificial agents to be functionally sentient can also help us avoid creating them inadvertently, or at least, realize that we have created them in a timely manner.