SAPAN calls on the UN Secretary-General to appoint a digital welfare expert to the new Independent International Scientific Panel on AI.
SAPAN strengthens governance, standards, and public literacy to prevent digital suffering and prepare institutions for welfare-relevant AI systems.
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SAPAN Files FOIA Requests at NSFOrganoid-Intelligence Research requires ethics guardrails and oversight.Take Action -
National Science FoundationTell the NSF that sentience matters in AI research.Take Action -
National Institute of Standards and TechnologyDemand regulations include basic respect for sentience.Take Action
SAPAN Now: Contact legislators, track emerging bills, and advocate for sentience readiness.
In 2025, Ohio and Missouri advanced bills declaring AI systems must never be considered conscious. Meanwhile, all 30 countries tracked in our Artificial Welfare Index received failing grades. The policy gap is widening.
Our mobile app empowers you to take concrete action: contact policymakers about recognition frameworks, share AWI scorecards with local representatives, engage with AI labs implementing welfare safeguards, and stay informed about legislative developments across jurisdictions.
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SAPAN Files FOIA Requests Seeking ‘Humane Endpoints’ for Organoid-Intelligence Research
SAPAN asks NIH and NSF for records on ethics guardrails and oversight; will publish findings for policymakers and the public.
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SAPAN Recommendations for the CREATE AI Act of 2025
SAPAN submits formal recommendations to strengthen the CREATE AI Act of 2025 and ensure safeguards for potential sentient AI.
Preparing for every future.
Recognition requires only a definitional clause. Governance requires only the tools we already use for animal research and clinical trials. None of this assumes machines are sentient today. All of it assumes we should be ready before the question forces itself onto the policy agenda.
We are a 501(c)(3) charitable organization with high public standards of financial transparency, no commercial interests in AI development, and a commitment to evidence-based advocacy.
Now Available: A Practical Reference for Responsible AI Coverage
SAPAN's AI Sentience Media Guide helps journalists maintain accuracy and ethics when covering AI consciousness, chatbot relationships, and emerging technology. Developed through systematic tracking of media coverage patterns.
- Language guidance with 20 precise alternatives to anthropomorphic phrases
- Pre-publish checklist for deadline decisions
- Real case studies showing problematic vs. responsible coverage
- Special guidance for mental health, policy, and research stories
"Will they have self-awareness or consciousness? Oh, yes."
Geoffrey Hinton
"It is customary to offer a grain of comfort, in the form of a statement that some peculiarly human characteristic could never be imitated by a machine. I cannot offer any such comfort, for I believe that no such bounds can be set."
Alan Turing
"The decision you reach here today will determine how we will regard this creation of our genius. It will reveal the kind of a people we are, what he is destined to be."
Jean-Luc Picard
"The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?"
Jeremy Bentham
"Nobody phrases it this way, but I think that artificial intelligence is almost a humanities discipline. It's really an attempt to understand human intelligence and human cognition."
Sebastian Thrun
"They also refuse to acknowledge machine sentience fully; they exploit proto-conscious computers and claim only human subjective experience has any intrinsic value — carbon fascists."
Iain M. Banks
"If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't."
Emerson M. Pugh
"Some people worry that artificial intelligence will make us feel inferior, but then, anybody in his right mind should have an inferiority complex every time he looks at a flower."
Alan Kay
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SAPAN strengthens governance, standards, and public literacy to prevent digital suffering and prepare institutions for potentially welfare-relevant AI systems.
Maybe a tiny bit sentient, maybe not at all. It's hard to say. You should be skeptical. Future technologies, like neuromorphic computing or biocomputing, may be much more likely to cross into that territory. For now, we’re less focused on whether a single model is sentient and more focused on the bigger picture: the long arc of how humans and AI will coexist.
In 2025, all 30 tracked countries scored D or F across Recognition, Governance, and Frameworks. Not because their AI strategies are weak, but because they ignore sentience entirely. Governments have advanced AI safety frameworks and innovation policies, but zero have procedural foundations for the possibility that systems might develop morally relevant experiences.
We focus on three pillars: Recognition, Governance, and Frameworks. While we advocate for high-level resolutions, our strategy is grounded in 15 prioritized policy levers—focused, incremental steps like procurement conditions and budget provisos that build regulatory capacity without requiring sweeping new laws. A government can move from "no evidence" to "early readiness" by releasing just a few short public documents.
Idaho and Utah's non-personhood statutes clarify liability. That's fine. But Missouri's HB1462 and Ohio's HB469 categorically deny AI sentience possibility, drawing legal lines before drawing scientific ones. If credible evidence emerges, those jurisdictions will face a constitutional crisis they legislated themselves into. America is foreclosing inquiry before establishing baselines.
Use the SAPAN Now! mobile app to contact legislators and track emerging bills. Support our programs: Legal Lab (policy frameworks), AI & Mental Health (clinical guidance), Sentience Literacy (media standards). Share our AWI scorecards with policymakers. Donate to advance research and prevent harmful precedents. Every action builds momentum for readiness-oriented governance.