Welcome to Future Perfect. Today: are we torturing ChatGPT or Claude? A recent Vox article asks if these AI chatbots can suffer. The answer may surprise you. As the piece explains, these models are like “philosophical zombies,” able to process language without any inner experience. The sensations of pain, fear or hunger you see in their stories are “just that—simulations without any inner experience.” Neuroscientist Christof Koch argues they lack the integrated information necessary for consciousness. In other words, “they don’t have any preferences, no wants, no feelings to be hurt.” So running them through gruesome scenarios doesn’t harm them—but there’s a catch. Treating them as emotional beings may dull our own empathy. And if future AI ever crosses the line into genuine sentience, our casual experiments could become real ethical dilemmas. For now, rest easy: you’re not torturing ChatGPT—yet.
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