MIT AI Risk Repository · domain 7: AI system safety, failures, & limitations

7.5 AI welfare and rights

Ethical considerations regarding the treatment of potentially sentient AI entities, including discussions around their potential rights and welfare, particularly as AI systems become more advanced and autonomous.

Risk entries: 3
Frameworks citing it: 2
Recorded incidents: —
Incidents since 2020: —

Causal entity (risk entries)

Causal entity (risk entries)
Label	Value
Human	2
AI	1

Intent (risk entries)

Intent (risk entries)
Label	Value
Other	2
Unintentional	1

Timing (risk entries)

Timing (risk entries)
Label	Value
Other	2
Post-deployment	1

Entries by levelRisk categories, subcategories and additional evidence coded to this subdomain

Entries by level
Label	Value
Risk Sub-Category	3

Risk entries

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AI rights and responsibilities
"We note literature—which gives us the domain termed Robot Rights—addressing the rights of the AI itself as we develop and implement it. We find arguments against [38] the affordance of rights for art...
Managing the ethical and risk implications of rapid advances in artificial intelligence: A literature review (Meek2016) · AI · Other · Other
AI death
"The literature suggests that throughout the development of an AI we may go through several generations of agents which do not perform as expected [37] [43]. In this case, such agents may be placed in...
Managing the ethical and risk implications of rapid advances in artificial intelligence: A literature review (Meek2016) · Human · Other · Other
Harms to non-humans
"Large-scale harms to animals and the development of AI capable of suffering."
A Taxonomy of Systemic Risks from General-Purpose AI (Uuk2025) · Human · Unintentional · Post-deployment