Should we care about AI systems when they become so advanced they appear to be almost human in key respects? Do we have a duty of care to microbes? Or to farmed insects? Or to the future wild creatures who might have lived were it not for the negative long-term effects of our present actions?
These are tricky moral questions. While some might regard them as obscure, they are of wide public relevance. Collectively, we humans now have more power than ever over “moral patients” – that is, those current and future beings who deserve moral consideration because they “matter for their own sakes”, not merely for ours.
