The Wrong Question? Artificial Consciousness and the Politics of AI Agency

Thierry Poibeau

Keywords: Artificial Consciousness, AI Governance, AI Alignment, Anthropomorphism, Moral Agency

TL;DR: Current AI discourse simultaneously anthropomorphizes AI systems and governs them as controllable tools, creating a neglected tension in alignment and governance.

Abstract:

Debates about artificial consciousness ask whether AI systems
possess subjective experience or intentionality. This paper argues
that this question, while philosophically legitimate, displaces
attention from a more consequential issue: what institutional order
is already being built around systems treated as quasi-agents. We
identify a structural contradiction at the heart of current AI
discourse --- systems are simultaneously described in the vocabulary
of autonomous agency and governed as permanently controllable
artifacts --- and argue that its implications for alignment,
accountability, and governance deserve more direct attention than
the metaphysical question alone.

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Submission Number: 49