Jeff Sebo Lecture: Next Steps for AI Welfare Research and Policy
Date: April 23, 2026
Time: 4:00-6:00pm
Location: Leacock Building, Room 26,听
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Description: This talk examines why AI welfare matters, how societies will react to AI welfare, and how societal reactions should factor into AI development. It first argues that there is a realistic possibility that some near-future AI systems will be conscious and/or robustly agentic, making AI welfare and moral status a pressing issue. It then examines how society is likely to respond to this possibility, drawing lessons from historical and ongoing attitudes toward animal consciousness, agency, welfare, and moral status. Finally, it considers implications for AI design, proposing that systems should be engineered to elicit emotional responses that appropriately track their capacities and moral status, while navigating uncertainty, disagreement, and user autonomy.
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Biography: Jeff Sebo is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Affiliated Professor of Bioethics, Medical Ethics, Philosophy, and Law, Director of the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection, and Director of the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy at New York University. His research focuses on animal minds, ethics, and policy; AI minds, ethics, and policy; and global health and climate ethics and policy. He is the author of The Moral Circle and Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves and co-author of Chimpanzee Rights and Food, Animals, and the Environment. He is also an advisory board member at the Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience, an advisory board member at the Insect Welfare Research Society, an advisor at Eleos AI Research, and a senior affiliate at the Institute for Law & AI.