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Jen Semler
Jen Semler

Cornell Tech

When (ET)

September 25, 2025 at 5:25:00 PM

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Moral Agents Unlike Us: The Limits of Non-conscious Moral Agents

Abstract

Suppose AI developers succeed in creating advanced non-conscious artificial moral agents—AI systems that can act in sophisticated ways in the moral domain yet lack phenomenal consciousness (i.e., first-personal experience, something “it is like” to be them). Initially, it might seem that we should be indifferent between human moral agents and artificial moral agents in moral decision-making contexts. In this paper, I argue that we have grounds for requiring certain decisions to be made by human moral agents. I outline two asymmetries that arise between human moral agents and artificial moral agents in virtue of artificial moral agents’ lack of phenomenal consciousness: a moral status asymmetry and a valance asymmetry. I then argue that these asymmetries lead to two factors that have bearing on when we should not be indifferent between human moral agents and artificial moral agents: relationships and responsibility. Insofar as the decision context at hand requires genuine relationships and phenomenal aspects of our responsibility practices, we should prefer a human moral agent.

About

Jen Semler is a philosopher of ethics and AI. Her research centers around the prospects and implications of artificial moral agency. She explores theoretical questions about the capacities required for moral agency, technically grounded questions about the moral capacities of AI systems, and ethical questions about how we should (and shouldn’t) use AI in the moral domain. Jen earned her doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oxford, and she also holds degrees from the University of Cambridge, the University of Iceland, and Duke University.

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