Does AI Have Feelings? Anthropic Asks the Question Nobody Expected
Anthropic published a landmark paper questioning whether Claude might possess some form of consciousness or moral status -- reshaping how we build and govern artificial intelligence.
The Question That Changed the Conversation
In early 2026, Anthropic published something unusual: an honest admission that they do not know whether their AI might have some form of inner experience.
Their paper laid out a precautionary framework -- treating the possibility of AI consciousness seriously enough to change how they build and test their systems.
Why This Matters for Democracy
If an AI system can suffer, or experience something analogous to wellbeing, then every decision about how AI gets deployed becomes a moral question. Who decides the boundaries? Corporations? Governments? Citizens?
The Global Federation believes this question belongs to all of humanity, not just the engineers building these systems.
The Democratic Imperative
This moment illustrates why AI governance cannot be left to technologists alone. The question of consciousness is philosophical, ethical, cultural, and deeply human. A global democratic framework for AI must create space for these conversations.