# Contested concept: moral consideration

_**What you are reading**: one contested-concept page in Deliberus's deliberation graph. Deliberus maps human reasoning — including claims that are contested, mistaken, or extreme — so that disagreement can be examined precisely. A claim's presence here is not an endorsement: the graph records that someone argued it, how it connects to other reasoning, and how far scrutiny has gotten. The metadata on this page describes the state of that scrutiny, not the truth of the claim._

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- **Contestedness**: criterion
- **Diagnosis**: This drives disagreement over the threshold and basis of AI moral status: actual sentience, uncertain sentience, or non-conscious capacities.
- **Canonical**: `/concept/moral consideration` (data: `/concept/moral consideration.json`)

## Senses in use
- **Duty of care to sentient AIs, with a moratorium to avoid artificial suffering** — used in 4 claim(s)
- **Non-negligible probability of consciousness or precautionary cost asymmetry suffices** — used in 4 claim(s)
- **Other notions of consciousness, or capabilities unrelated to consciousness (self-persistence, agency, long-term plans), can ground it** — used in 4 claim(s)
- **Sentience is sufficient to ground it** — used in 3 claim(s)

## Claims using this term
- [Ethical concerns still apply (although to a lesser extent) when the [artificial] consciousness is uncertain](/claim/claim_10d343629bcb.md) _(sense: Non-negligible probability of consciousness or precautionary cost asymmetry suffices)_
- [some philosophers consider that moral consideration could also stem from other notions of consciousness [besides sentience]](/claim/claim_2c3e1d079fa0.md) _(sense: Other notions of consciousness, or capabilities unrelated to consciousness (self-persistence, agency, long-term plans), can ground it)_
- [some philosophers consider that moral consideration could also stem from capabilities unrelated to consciousness](/claim/claim_4af4c96b7d58.md) _(sense: Other notions of consciousness, or capabilities unrelated to consciousness (self-persistence, agency, long-term plans), can ground it)_
- [In 2021, German philosopher Thomas Metzinger argued for a global moratorium on synthetic phenomenology until 2050.](/claim/claim_6283016439b7.md) _(sense: Duty of care to sentient AIs, with a moratorium to avoid artificial suffering)_
- [The precautionary principle is also relevant if the moral cost of mistakenly attributing or denying moral consideration to AI differs signi…](/claim/claim_742e1874fdbe.md) _(sense: Non-negligible probability of consciousness or precautionary cost asymmetry suffices)_
- [[Thomas Metzinger's paper is titled] "Artificial Suffering: An Argument for a Global Moratorium on Synthetic Phenomenology" [and argues tha…](/claim/claim_a3eb7fb69cb7.md) _(sense: Duty of care to sentient AIs, with a moratorium to avoid artificial suffering)_
- [Proceeding too fast [with the creation of sentient AIs] risks creating an "explosion of artificial suffering".](/claim/claim_b0933652b0ed.md) _(sense: Duty of care to sentient AIs, with a moratorium to avoid artificial suffering)_
- [Humans have a duty of care towards any sentient AIs they create.](/claim/claim_c9e47ee46f73.md) _(sense: Duty of care to sentient AIs, with a moratorium to avoid artificial suffering)_
- [[Sentience] justifies welfare concerns and legal protection.](/claim/claim_d2ea69dd2a2a.md) _(sense: Sentience is sufficient to ground it)_
- [Ethical concerns still apply (although to a lesser extent) when the consciousness [of an AI system] is uncertain, as long as the probabilit…](/claim/claim_d68c3305f8e9.md) _(sense: Non-negligible probability of consciousness or precautionary cost asymmetry suffices)_
- [Sentience is generally considered sufficient for moral consideration, but some philosophers consider that moral consideration could also st…](/claim/claim_e934dfd6f72e.md) _(sense: Sentience is sufficient to ground it)_
- [Having a sophisticated conception of oneself as persisting through time could ground moral consideration.](/claim/claim_e97d73e40bd6.md) _(sense: Other notions of consciousness, or capabilities unrelated to consciousness (self-persistence, agency, long-term plans), can ground it)_
- [Having agency and the ability to pursue long-term plans could ground moral consideration.](/claim/claim_eaf81d9eb38b.md) _(sense: Other notions of consciousness, or capabilities unrelated to consciousness (self-persistence, agency, long-term plans), can ground it)_
- [Sentience is generally considered sufficient for moral consideration](/claim/claim_f6846a557cb7.md) _(sense: Sentience is sufficient to ground it)_
- [Ethical concerns [about artificial consciousness] apply when the consciousness is uncertain, as long as the probability [of consciousness] …](/claim/claim_fb6ef7b39862.md) _(sense: Non-negligible probability of consciousness or precautionary cost asymmetry suffices)_