Suffering machines? A critical inquiry concerning the moral risks of creating an ‘organoid intelligence’

What could happen in the future if AI technologies became sentient like human beings, thus capable of suffering and feeling existentially alienated? The question warrants serious consideration, especially in light of recent advances in biocomputing, where small human brain organoids have been cultivated that display a rudimentary form of sentience. Currently, researchers aim at creating complex networked interfaces where several brain organoids are interconnected with each other, to real-world input/output sensors, and to machine-learning models. This constitutes a first step in the development of an ‘organoid intelligence’ (OI) that could potentially improve future decision-making and be much more energy efficient. But what are the ethical stakes of bringing new sentient and intelligent creatures to life to work for the benefit of humanity? In the present study, my aim is to highlight the latest progress in biocomputing and to examine the hypothetical risks of creating OI using a ‘speculative design fiction’ approach. My main argument is that we should not disregard the possibility that these efforts could accidentally cause the phenomenal experience of suffering to spill over from biology into technology, which could thus have tragic consequences. I will present three different, but partly overlapping, scenarios that illustrate how OI might experience and respond to an alienated labor situation. In the conclusion, I will assess a few solutions meant to prevent OI suffering and the importance of expanding our moral circles. • Researchers are currently exploring the possibilities of synthesizing human stem-cell-derived brain organoids and silicon-based AI to create an ‘organoid intelligence’ (OI). • There are moral uncertainties and risks involved in humanity’s efforts to produce a potentially sentient OI technology; the study promotes a moral circle expansion. • An emerging technologies perspective is combined with a speculative design fiction approach to contextualize the empirical case. • Three hypothetical scenarios are presented to show how future OI creatures may suffer and respond to their alienated work situation.