Workshop 1 — Foundations of AI Sentience Research

Workshop 1 — Foundations of AI Sentience Research

Concepts, Theories and Challenges

Calendar 9 July 2026, 14:00 UTC
Laptop Online (Zoom) | ⏱ 90-120 minutes
Zoom recording shared with participants in Slack.


Overview

This workshop introduces foundational concepts and research frameworks related to consciousness, sentience, and related phenomena in AI systems.
Participants will engage with key concepts in philosophy and cognitive science, examine why AI sentience may be a particularly important topic to study now and explore how evaluation frameworks are applied — and challenged — in the context of digital minds.
The session bridges conceptual analysis and empirical research, providing a structured foundation for engaging with questions of AI sentience across scientific, ethical, and policy contexts.


Learning Outcomes

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
  • Define key concepts including consciousness, sentience, agency, moral standing, and other morally relevant states
  • Understand different philosophical positions
  • Identify key routes to attributing moral standing and their implications
  • Recognise risks of over-attribution and under-attribution in the context of AI
  • Describe the current state of scientific understanding of consciousness
  • Identify leading theories of consciousness and their potential application to digital systems
  • Understand computational functionalism and its application to AI
  • Analyse methods used to assess consciousness and other mental states in AI systems
  • Identify challenges in detecting, interpreting, and individuating potential digital minds


Topics

Conceptual Foundations
  • Key terms: consciousness, sentience, agency, moral standing
  • Competing philosophical perspectives on subjective experience
  • Moral relevance and attribution frameworks
Theories of Consciousness
  • Overview of leading theories and their assumptions
  • Applicability (and limits) in digital systems
  • Distinguishing theory families and background frameworks
Computational Functionalism
  • Core claims and motivations
  • Arguments for and against its application to AI
Evaluating AI Systems
  • Methods for assessing consciousness and related mental states
  • Behavioural vs theory-driven approaches
  • Practical challenges
Empirical Research & Open Questions
  • Current research approaches
  • Limits of existing evidence
  • Challenges in identifying and individuating digital minds


Format

  • Lecture and conceptual framing
  • Discussion of key theories and research approaches
  • Interactive elements and guided reflection


Facilitators

Delivered in partnership with  Cambridge Digital Minds .



Slides


PDF document 5MB
It appears you do not have a PDF plugin for this browser.
Recording of the session has been shared with Scholars on Slack.


Resources mentioned in chat

  • PRISM map:  Mapping the Field of Artificial Consciousness 
  •  Hub for AI welfare, sentience and cognition research 
  •  Neuromatch NeuroAI resources (Mysteries module) 
  •  Work of David Abel 
  •  Work of Christopher Summerfield 
  •  Position: AI Welfare Is Bullshit 
  •  Position: Unplugging a Seemingly Sentient Machine Is the Rational Choice — A Metaphysical Perspective 
  •  Antropic global workspace paper 
  •  Blogpost 
  •  Agnosticism About Artificial Consciousness