Should AI Be Given Moral Status? Exploring the Debate

AI, or Artificial Intelligence, has become one of the hottest topics of our time. Whether we realize it or not, many aspects of our lives are shaped by smart computer programs—some even more capable than humans in specific tasks! And, as strange as it may seem, some of these AI systems are now being treated almost like people, with one even being granted citizenship in a country. This raises a fascinating and slightly unsettling question: should AI be given moral status? In this blog, we'll break down what AI really is, how it’s changing our daily lives, and whether it could—or should—be granted moral status based on current philosophical ideas.

Simply put, AI is the ability of machines to mimic human thinking. This is made possible by Machine Learning, where computers are trained on vast amounts of data to predict future outcomes. AI doesn’t stop there—it also draws on other technologies like Neural Networks, Image Processing, and the Internet of Things (IoT), making machines increasingly “aware” of their surroundings and responsive to human needs.

The recent boom in AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s BARD has been revolutionary. These programs are capable of crafting well-written responses, documents, or even holding a conversation. What used to take people hours of careful thought and effort can now be done in seconds. On top of that, AI is everywhere—in the ads we see online, in the recommendations we get on social media, and even in our devices that track our preferences. In short, AI has already become an integral part of modern life, almost like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Moral status is what we give to living beings that can feel emotions, like pain and pleasure. It’s what makes us consider some actions as “good” or “bad” in how they affect others. But it’s not just humans who have moral status—animals, plants, and birds all feel things too. You wouldn’t throw a rock into a lake and expect people to get upset, but if you threw a little bird into the lake, people would certainly react because the bird feels pain and fear.

From a philosophical standpoint, moral status is about how much an entity’s feelings and experiences matter from an ethical point of view. Some philosophers believe only humans deserve moral status, while others argue that all living, sentient beings do. Several theories, like Personhood Theory, Sentience Theory, and The Capacity to Suffer Theory, try to define who or what qualifies. Personhood Theory says only self-aware beings should have moral status, while Sentience Theory grants it to any being that can feel pain or pleasure. The Capacity to Suffer Theory takes it further by saying beings that can suffer deserve moral consideration.

Right now, AI is impressive, but it’s still a long way from feeling emotions like humans. We have robots that can do human tasks faster and more efficiently, but robots are not emotional beings—at least not yet.

At its core, AI is a program that makes decisions based on the data it's given. If the data is wrong, the AI will make mistakes. However, advanced AI can now fact-check itself by scouring the internet, which adds another layer of intelligence. But even with these advances, AI still doesn’t feel in the way humans or animals do.

However, AI is learning to recognize human emotions. Take the robot MILO, for example—it helps teach autistic children social skills by reading their emotions. Then there’s "Robin," a robot used for emotional support in hospitals that can detect when a patient is in pain. This is all thanks to "emotion chips" that allow these robots to understand our feelings.

But can AI ever feel the way we do? Researchers in Japan have created a robot named ‘Affetto,’ which can “feel” pain and react to it. It has a custom skin and a “Pain Nervous System” that allows it to differentiate between a light touch and a harder hit, and respond with facial expressions. This kind of development ties into the concept of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which focuses on creating machines that can perform human-like tasks, including feeling emotions. However, even though Affetto reacts to pain, it doesn’t experience it in the way humans do.

So, while AI might have emotions one day, that day is still far off. Researchers suggest we won’t see robots with true human-like emotions for at least another 10 to 20 years—if not longer.

Given what AI can already do, should we consider giving it moral status? The short answer, for now, is no. AI, as it currently stands, doesn’t have the qualities—like real emotions or feelings—that would justify moral status. It can’t feel pain or pleasure, which rules it out according to Sentience Theory.

But what about the future? Imagine a world 50 or 60 years from now, or even in the 22nd century, where humans and machines coexist. In that world, we might have AGI—robots that can genuinely feel pain, pleasure, and even emotions. If we reach that point, we might have to reconsider. We could face a world where hurting a small robot could be considered cruel because it feels pain. Some experts even believe that we may one day be able to transfer human consciousness into androids. In that case, these androids would definitely deserve moral status, as they would carry the consciousness of once-living humans.

So, will AI have moral status in the future? It’s possible. Whether this comes through a “Great Android Revolution” or gradual legal changes, one thing is clear—robots and AI are getting smarter and more integrated into our world, and they might one day demand moral consideration.

We already live in a world with robots like “Sophia,” an AI-powered humanoid that holds citizenship in Saudi Arabia and works at a nursing home, doing a job that once belonged to a human. If we’re giving citizenship to rivers and objects in some countries, could giving moral status to robots be next?

The future where humans and AI-powered beings coexist may seem far away, but it’s not impossible. As we continue advancing, we must start thinking about how we’ll handle a future where AI has feelings, rights, and perhaps even moral status. The future might be a mix of humans and machines, and we need to prepare for it with the right precautions and an open mind.