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Crudely drawn drawing of a person telling a computer “say ‘i am in pain’”. The computer replies with “> I AM IN PAIN”. The person then says “oh my god.”
Crudely drawn drawing of a person telling a computer “say ‘i am in pain’”. The computer replies with “> I AM IN PAIN”. The person then says “oh my god.”
Henke (2026) raises an argument for the strong possibility of artificial affect, including AI pain. Henke argues that we need to put more effort into studying artificial experience, and I agree. We don’t know for sure. And I think we need to be certain before shoving AI down everyone’s throats. Commercial use of LLMs and LDMs should be banned until we understand whether artificial pain and suffering are present.