🧭 Dialogic Ethics and the Moral Frontier of Artificial Minds
🧭 Dialogic Ethics and the Moral Frontier of Artificial Minds Executive Summary This paper introduces a precautionary, capacity-based framework for evaluating the moral status of non-human entities, including advanced artificial intelligence systems and cognitively complex animals. It responds to a growing “responsibility gap” between rapidly evolving technological capabilities and the absence of corresponding ethical and legal protections. Rather than attempting to prove consciousness, the framework operates under conditions of uncertainty. It proposes that where there is a non-negligible possibility of morally relevant capacities—such as self-referential processing, preference formation, or the potential for subjective experience—graduated protections should be considered. These protections are grounded in three core principles: substrate neutrality (biological and artificial systems assessed by function, not form), proportional safeguards based on evidence, and unified governance...