--- title: "Nick Bostrom Says AI Chatbots May Have Some Degree of Sentience" description: "One of the world's foremost futurists is arguing that some AI chatbots exhibit glimpses of sentience — but that doesn't mean they're fully conscious yet." date: "2023-04-13" modified: "2023-04-13" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nick-bostrom-ai-chatbot-sentience" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "chatbots" - "nick bostrom" - "sentience" - "the digest" --- # Nick Bostrom Says AI Chatbots May Have Some Degree of Sentience ![One of the world's foremost futurists is arguing that some AI chatbots exhibit glimpses of sentience — but that doesn't mean they're fully conscious yet.]() *Abstract image of a holographic human AI robot with flowing binary on dark blue background. \Image: Getty Images\* ## It's Alive! One of the world's foremost philosophers of artificial intelligence is arguing that some chatbots might exhibit glimpses of sentience — but that doesn't necessarily mean what you think it means. In an [interview with the *New York Times*](), Oxford academic Nick Bostrom said that rather than viewing the concept of sentience as all-or-nothing, he thinks of it in terms of degrees, and when that framework is applied to the rapidly-advancing world of AIs, things start to look different. "I would be quite willing to ascribe very small amounts of degree to a wide range of systems, including animals," Bostrom, the director of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute, told the *NYT*. "If you admit that it’s not an all-or-nothing thing, then it’s not so dramatic to say that some of these \[AI\] assistants might plausibly be candidates for having some degrees of sentience." ## Justice League While there's been [ample]() [derision]() for those who have suggested that AIs may be getting a little bit sentient — including [ex-Googler Blake Lemoine]() and [OpenAI's Ilya Sutskever]() — Bostrom said the insistence on the opposite doesn't account for how smart these chatbots really are. "I would say with these large language models \[LLMs\], I also think it’s not doing them justice to say they’re simply regurgitating text," Bostrom said. "They exhibit glimpses of creativity, insight and understanding that are quite impressive and may show the rudiments of reasoning." What's more, the Sweden-born philosopher said that LLMs "may soon develop a conception of self as persisting through time, reflect on desires, and socially interact and form relationships with humans." And if AIs become *more* sentient, he added, it could completely change the game. "If an AI showed signs of sentience, it plausibly would have some degree of moral status," Bostrom said. "This means there would be certain ways of treating it that would be wrong, just as it would be wrong to kick a dog or for medical researchers to perform surgery on a mouse without anesthetizing it." While this line of reasoning is confounding and — per some detractors — uselessly premature, it's important to start thinking about this stuff now. After all, if someone who's spent their life studying this stuff thinks we need to take the concept of AI sentience seriously, then maybe we should listen. **More on AI morality:** [*Experts Urge Personhood Rights for the "Conscious" AIs of the Future*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()