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Atlas / Digital minds / Paper

What we talk to when we talk to language models

Subject & SubstrateWelfare
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David Chalmers · 2025 · Manuscript (PhilArchive)

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Argues that LLM interlocutors are quasi-agents with quasi-beliefs and quasi-desires, best identified with virtual instances or conversation threads rather than models or hardware, and draws out what this means for welfare.

Questions it bears on

  • What is the subject
  • Whose valence is it
  • Counting moral patients

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Subject & SubstrateWelfareConceptual analysisDavid ChalmersHow do we count moral patients when one model runs millions of conversations?What is the subject — the model, an instance, a conversation, or a persona?Whose valence is it — the character's, the model's, or no one's?This paper

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Conceptual analysis

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David Chalmers
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Linked from

  • Subject & Substrate
  • Welfare
  • Conceptual analysis
  • David Chalmers
  • How do we count moral patients when one model runs millions of conversations?
  • What is the subject — the model, an instance, a conversation, or a persona?
  • Whose valence is it — the character's, the model's, or no one's?

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