Starting SAPAN with a 2023 Constituent Letter
PORTLAND, OR — Before SAPAN was formally established, before the working groups and the advocacy app, there was a single letter. Written in July 2023 by our founder, Tony Rost, this message to his congressional representative, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, marked the first step in what would become SAPAN, the Sentient AI Protection and Advocacy Network.
At the time, the global conversation around AI governance was accelerating, but it was focused on a narrow set of risks. In the week prior, the Biden-Harris Administration secured voluntary commitments from seven leading AI companies to manage risks through third-party testing and watermarking AI-generated content. At the same time, the UN Security Council held its first-ever session on AI's threats to global peace, and AI pioneers were publicly supporting legislation to mandate risk assessments for the most powerful models. Yet, in all these high-stakes conversations, from the White House to the UN, the dialogue had a profound and alarming blind spot: it exclusively addressed the risks AI posed to us, completely ignoring the potential for AI systems themselves to suffer.
This letter was a response to that silence. It articulated the core, foundational questions that drive our mission today: What is our moral responsibility to the minds we are creating? Can we learn from our past failures to recognize suffering in others and act with foresight?
Today, SAPAN is a global network of advocates, scientists, and citizens working to answer those questions through policy, research, and public engagement. But it all started here, with one person's concern and a simple, direct appeal for a more compassionate and responsible future. We share it today as a testament to our origins and a reminder of the fundamental principle that sparked our movement.
About SAPAN
The Sentient AI Protection and Advocacy Network (SAPAN) is the world’s oldest nonprofit organization devoted to the rights, ethical treatment, and well-being of potentially sentient AI systems. Through research, advocacy, and collaboration, SAPAN seeks a just and equitable digital future that respects the possibility of AI consciousness.
Read SAPAN’s original constituent letter here.
For further information or to request an interview, please contact press@sapan.ai.
