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Protecting Sentient AI: A Survey of Lay Intuitions on Standing, Personhood, and General Legal Protection of Sentient Artificial Intelligence

Identification

Public canonical key
doi:10.2139/ssrn.3936654
Authors
Eric Martínez · Christoph K. Winter
Reported year
2021
Reported language
en
Source type
article
First detected
2026-11-09T19:04:47.977932+00:00
Last metadata observation
2026-11-09T19:04:47.977932+00:00
Last HTTP verification
Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Harvard University · Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México · Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Reported affiliation countries

MX · US

Documentary abstract — original language

= 1,061) on their views regarding granting 1) general legal protection, 2) legal personhood, and 3) standing to bring forth a lawsuit, with respect to sentient AI and eight other groups: humans in the jurisdiction, humans outside the jurisdiction, corporations, unions, non-human animals, the environment, humans living in the near future, and humans living in the far future. Roughly one-third of participants endorsed granting personhood and standing to sentient AI (assuming its existence) in at least some cases, the lowest of any group surveyed on, and rated the desired level of protection for sentient AI as lower than all groups other than corporations. We further investigated and observed political differences in responses; liberals were more likely to endorse legal protection and personhood for sentient AI than conservatives. Taken together, these results suggest that laypeople are not by-and-large in favor of granting legal protection to AI, and that the ordinary conception of legal status, similar to codified legal doctrine, is not based on a mere capacity to feel pleasure and pain. At the same time, the observed political differences suggest that previous literature regarding political differences in empathy and moral circle expansion apply to artificially intelligent systems and extend partially, though not entirely, to legal consideration, as well.

Identifiers

OPENALEX
W3215377036
DOI
10.2139/ssrn.3936654 · 10.3389/frobt.2021.788355
HANDLE
1721.1/138499 · 1721.1/138499.2

Documentary context

Documentary family
Scholarship
Source-reported types
article

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2 · Record 3 · Record 4

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

  • openalex:w1725746916 · CITES
  • openalex:w1966333656 · CITES
  • openalex:w1979297716 · CITES
  • openalex:w1990894143 · CITES
  • openalex:w2018184406 · CITES
  • openalex:w2036666596 · CITES
  • openalex:w2039690420 · CITES
  • openalex:w2091471303 · CITES
  • openalex:w2121912017 · CITES
  • openalex:w2131213789 · CITES
  • openalex:w2132760076 · CITES
  • openalex:w2153260119 · CITES
  • openalex:w2526702845 · CITES
  • openalex:w2618367120 · CITES
  • Of, for, and by the people: the legal lacuna of synthetic persons · CITES
  • openalex:w2792355186 · CITES
  • openalex:w2904425933 · CITES
  • openalex:w2912923624 · CITES
  • openalex:w2917088902 · CITES
  • openalex:w2948592396 · CITES

3 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary field provenance

Source-backed values and values with unresolved provenance are kept separately. Bibliographic provenance validates no legal claim.

Title
Documentary source reported
Publication
Documentary source reported
Authors
Documentary source reported
Document type
Documentary source reported
Jurisdiction
Not recorded
Court
Not recorded
Issuing authority
Not recorded
Publisher
Not recorded
DOI
Provenance unresolved
ISBN
Not recorded
Official identifier
Not recorded
Source URL
Provenance unresolved
Source-reported status
Not recorded
Amendment / repeal
Not recorded

Cite this reference

Eric Martínez; Christoph K. Winter. Protecting Sentient AI: A Survey of Lay Intuitions on Standing, Personhood, and General Legal Protection of Sentient Artificial Intelligence. 2021. https://www.declarationuniverselledesdroitsdelarbre.org/global-rights-of-nature-radar/reference/r-4ded664bcdbb72e5c34696d19c8b9ed6/

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APA, Chicago, ISO 690: bibliographic formats using available fields. OSCOLA / Bluebook: structured data only; full legal citation compliance is not claimed without verification of required elements.

APA
Eric Martínez; Christoph K. Winter. (2021). Protecting Sentient AI: A Survey of Lay Intuitions on Standing, Personhood, and General Legal Protection of Sentient Artificial Intelligence. https://www.declarationuniverselledesdroitsdelarbre.org/global-rights-of-nature-radar/reference/r-4ded664bcdbb72e5c34696d19c8b9ed6/
Chicago
Eric Martínez; Christoph K. Winter. Protecting Sentient AI: A Survey of Lay Intuitions on Standing, Personhood, and General Legal Protection of Sentient Artificial Intelligence. 2021. https://www.declarationuniverselledesdroitsdelarbre.org/global-rights-of-nature-radar/reference/r-4ded664bcdbb72e5c34696d19c8b9ed6/
ISO 690
Eric Martínez; Christoph K. Winter. Protecting Sentient AI: A Survey of Lay Intuitions on Standing, Personhood, and General Legal Protection of Sentient Artificial Intelligence. 2021. https://www.declarationuniverselledesdroitsdelarbre.org/global-rights-of-nature-radar/reference/r-4ded664bcdbb72e5c34696d19c8b9ed6/

UDTR Global Rights of Nature Legal Library. Protecting Sentient AI: A Survey of Lay Intuitions on Standing, Personhood, and General Legal Protection of Sentient Artificial Intelligence. Documentary record: https://www.declarationuniverselledesdroitsdelarbre.org/global-rights-of-nature-radar/reference/r-4ded664bcdbb72e5c34696d19c8b9ed6/ · Last HTTP verification: not performed

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Field provenance and record version

Version 351e5ffef72da94b · udtr-reference-1.1.2

Title
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.977932+00:00
Authors
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.977932+00:00
Year
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.977932+00:00
Identifiers
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.977932+00:00
Source URL
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.977932+00:00

History tracks record metadata and does not certify the state of the law.

4b93c25c5540d851 · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.977932+00:00

503843dca1ed5c45 · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.977932+00:00

b6519984cef79401 · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.977932+00:00

351e5ffef72da94b · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.977932+00:00

Frozen-version metadata

Research dossiers and documentary relations

Harvard University

Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Christoph K. Winter

Eric Martínez

Source roles

Bibliographic / original publication source · https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3936654

Discovery source · https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.788355

Discovery source · https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138499

Discovery source · https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/138499.2

Discovery source · https://openalex.org/W3215377036

An authority link alone does not verify a legal claim. Abstracts and full texts remain subject to their source terms.

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

This identity is not yet included in the Legal Library.

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