The capacity for subjective experience, or sentience, is a defining feature of consciousness. An organism is considered sentient if “there is something it is like to be that organism.” 1 In his 2024 ...

I am so pleased to announce that The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) has launched a most welcomed, unique, and interactive platform dedicated to the science of nonhuman animal ...

After a chimpanzee named Flint recently lost his mother, renowned primatologist Dr Jane Goodall wrote: the last short journey he made, pausing to rest every few feet, was to the very place where Flo’s ...

Can artificial intelligence (AI) feel distress? Do lobsters suffer in a pot as it reaches a boil? Can a 12-week-old fetus feel pain? Ignore these questions and we potentially sanction a quiet, ...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to become sentient anywhere from never to sometime in the next decade or two. If robots do become sentient, how would we know? Are we disincentivized to ...

Intelligence comes in many forms. Octopuses are highly intelligent—and completely unlike humans. In case you haven’t noticed, artificial intelligence systems have been behaving in increasingly ...

We know they can cast spells on humans, but now octopuses have achieved legal recognition as sentient beings, too. The British government has announced that it will add both cephalopods (the class ...