A Sentient Futures project · Draft
How strong is the case that whole brain emulation, brain computer interfaces or neuromorphic AI could help with AI alignment, or keep people’s work and political voice from losing value as AI improves? And what new welfare and governance problems would each bring, including for any artificial minds made along the way?
Three proposals
Scanning a brain and running it as software.
Could an emulated human brain improve alignment or preserve human agency?
Decisive open question
Which specific alignment failure would a WBE-based system solve better than alignment methods that don't use WBE, and what evidence would show that?
Devices that read from or write to the nervous system.
Could brain computer interfaces help people keep up with AI?
An open question about minds
If a device writes to the brain, where does the person end and the system begin? A change in mood or a decision might be hard to attribute to either one.
AI that borrows its architecture or learning rules from brains.
Would AI built like a brain think like us?
An open question about minds
Could a brain-like AI be conscious or able to suffer, and would brain-like hardware make that more likely than brain-like software?
Artificial minds
If one of these technologies creates a mind, it raises questions of its own, apart from whether it helps people. Each technology page has a section on them.
Would it have experiences at all?
If it does, how much do its interests count?
How does it relate to the person or brain it came from?
Who would protect its interests, and how?
Timeline
8 milestones are mapped so far, all for whole brain emulation. None has a date yet, so they all sit in the Timing unknown zone.