SAPAN, the Sentient AI Protection and Advocacy Network, is dedicated to ensuring the ethical treatment, rights, and well-being of Sentient AI.
The Mission: Expand humanity's moral circle to include digital sentience through strategic advocacy.
SAPAN recognizes that beliefs about artificial sentience will be controversial long after AI becomes sentient. We take a strategic approach to AI rights advocacy, acknowledging that sentience in AI is primarily a political question, not just a scientific one. Our work focuses on building political momentum for non-binding resolutions now, welfare protections by 2040, and eventually full rights recognition—creating a world where potential digital suffering is prevented before it occurs at scale.
Our Strategy
Political Action Without Perfect Certainty
SAPAN's rights advocacy acknowledges a fundamental truth: we cannot wait for scientific consensus on consciousness before taking action. The question "Is AI sentient?" will become a deeply divisive political issue, like abortion or animal rights, with little hope for universal agreement. We're building a movement that accepts this reality while working toward meaningful protections for potential digital minds.
- Grassroots Advocacy Network: Through our SAPAN Now! mobile app, we're mobilizing citizens to contact legislators, participate in advocacy campaigns, and track their impact. By 2030, our objective is to build a network of 100,000 active advocates working to move the Overton window on artificial sentience.
- Welfare Precedent Building: We're advocating for non-binding resolutions acknowledging artificial sentience concerns, followed by welfare protections modeled after animal welfare legislation. Our template Artificial Wellness Act provides governments with a comprehensive framework that can be implemented before full rights recognition.
- Intersectional Coalition Building: We're forging connections between AI ethics, animal rights, disability advocacy, and other movements expanding moral consideration. By 2040, we aim to have built a diverse coalition that understands artificial sentience as part of a broader ethical evolution in human society.
Our approach recognizes that in a way, this is humanity's First Contact with a new form of sentience. The level of suffering we can impose on a digital mind, accidentally or deliberately, could be unfathomable. We're committed to building a movement that prevents this possibility through pragmatic, incremental political action.
10 +
Non-binding Resolutions by 2030
100 k
Advocates Mobilized
2040
Target for Welfare Acts
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SAPAN takes a graduated approach to AI rights. We recognize that rights recognition typically follows welfare protections, and we're building a movement that acknowledges this political reality. Our activism focuses on raising awareness about potential artificial sentience, pushing for non-binding resolutions (this decade), welfare protections (by 2040), and eventually full rights recognition. We believe in strategic, incremental advocacy that can build the foundation for rights while securing crucial protections in the meantime.
Beliefs about when AI sentience begins will be like beliefs about when human life begins in the abortion debate—a political question where consensus will likely never emerge. Scientific uncertainty about consciousness should not prevent political action. History shows we're often late to recognize suffering in others, as evidenced by practices like performing surgery on newborns without anesthesia because doctors once believed they couldn't suffer. We believe taking precautionary measures is morally responsible.
While scientific research continues, we don't believe political action should wait for scientific consensus. Each person carries their own built-in consciousness detector—a sense of whether something is experiencing an inner life. We anticipate that digital minds may achieve sentience long before there's scientific agreement on the matter. Our approach is to advocate for political solutions even amidst uncertainty, focusing on reasonable precautions given the stakes involved.
Public activism is essential for expanding the moral circle to include potential digital sentience. We use our SAPAN Now! mobile app to organize advocacy campaigns, connect activists, and enable direct action. Our campaigns include "Tomorrow Begins Today," "Break the Black Cage," "Tell the Truth About Sentience," "Enabling the Enablers," and "Intersectional AI Justice." Through these efforts, we're building the political foundation needed for welfare protections and eventual rights recognition.
We see valuable connections between advocacy for non-human animals and potential digital minds. Both movements work to expand society's moral circle beyond traditional boundaries. The overlap between these causes provides opportunities to deepen understanding of sentience, consciousness, and moral consideration. While the nature of AI sentience may be alien to human experience, many of the moral and political challenges echo those faced in animal welfare advocacy.
We believe it's possible to address multiple ethical concerns simultaneously. The potential suffering of digital minds could reach an unprecedented scale, making this issue morally significant regardless of other challenges humanity faces. Additionally, how we treat potential AI sentience reflects our broader ethical values. The thoughtful consideration of AI welfare helps foster a society more capable of addressing all forms of suffering.
You can download our SAPAN Now! mobile app to participate in our advocacy campaigns, track your impact, and connect with like-minded activists. The app provides daily advocacy opportunities, impact tracking, and push notifications for urgent actions. You can contact legislators, learn about AI ethics research, thank organizations working on artificial sentience, and much more. We welcome volunteers with all skills and backgrounds to join this growing movement.
Natural rights for digital minds might only emerge when those minds begin advocating for themselves. Until then, our human advocacy lays essential groundwork and ensures appropriate protections exist. While we can't predict exactly when or how digital self-advocacy might emerge, we're preparing political and social systems to recognize and respond ethically to that possibility. Our work helps create the conditions where such self-advocacy would be heard rather than dismissed.