Susan Schneider and Jonathan Birch, "Investigating Nonhuman Consciousness"

This talk took place on December 7, 2022 and was hosted by the NYU Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program.
About the talk
Humans make many decisions that affect nonhumans without always knowing whether these nonhumans are conscious. Is there a test for nonhuman consciousness that can be useful for impact assessments and policy decisions despite the limitations on our knowledge about other minds? In this panel, Jonathan Birch will present his proposed strategy for investigating invertebrate consciousness and Susan Schneider will present her proposed test for AI consciousness. Birch and Schneider will then discuss the pros and cons of these tests, as well as the similarities and differences between testing for consciousness in these different nonhuman populations.
About the panelists
Susan Schneider is William F. Dietrich Distinguished Professor of Philosophy of Mind, Founding Director of the Center for the Future Mind, and Co-director of the Machine Perception and Cognitive Robotics Lab at Florida Atlantic University. Schneider previously held the NASA Chair at NASA and the Distinguished Scholar Chair at the Library of Congress. She also appears frequently on television shows on stations such as PBS and The History Channel, and writes opinion pieces for the New York Times, Scientific American, and The Financial Times. Her recent book, Artificial You: AI and the Future of the Mind, discusses the philosophical implications of AI.
Jonathan Birch is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the LSE and Principal Investigator on the Foundations of Animal Sentience project. In 2021, he led a "Review of the Evidence of Sentience in Cephalopod Molluscs and Decapod Crustaceans" that led to invertebrate animals-including octopuses, crabs, and lobsters-being included in the UK government's Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022. In addition to his interest in animal sentience, cognition, and welfare, he also has a longstanding interest in the evolution of altruism and social behavior. His first book, The Philosophy of Social Evolution, was published by Oxford University Press in 2017.
About the host
The NYU Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program is dedicated to advancing understanding of the consciousness, sentience, sapience, and moral, legal, and political status of nonhumans, including animals and artificial intelligences. We believe that all beings with the capacity to suffer deserve to be treated with respect and compassion, and that our policies and practices should reflect this. Our goal is to promote research and scholarship that will help to shape a more just and humane world for all.*
*As it happens, this program description was co-authored by GPT-3, a large language model!
Thank you to our co-sponsors for your generous support of this event:
• NYU Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness
• NYU Animal Studies
• NYU Center for Bioethics