Year: 2026
Type: article
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.
Author: Poibeau, Thierry
Language: English
Subfield: Artificial Intelligence
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Agence Nationale de la Recherche
OpenAlex ID: W7166270905