The Limits and Future of AI Sentience: Buddhist and Scientific Perspectives

Speaker: Jian-Nor Shih, Luminary Buddhist Institute, Taiwan

This event is a follow-up event to the Symposium "AI and Religion“ 2 to 3 March 2025

When: 3 December at 13.15 to 15.00 CET

Where:    LUX, Helgonavägen 3, Lund, Sweden, room B417 (registration see below) and online (link by registration).

In case of participation on site in Lund, please register no later than 26 November, with Prof. Dr. Esther-Maria Guggenmos, CTR, at: esther-maria.guggenmos@ctr.lu.se and let her know that you want to participate on site.

Lecture on "The Limits and Future of AI Sentience: Buddhist and Scientific Perspectives“ by Dr. Jian-Nor Shih (Jo-Fu Lotus Lin) 釋⾒諾/林若芙, Luminary Buddhist Institute 香光尼眾佛學院, Taiwan, followed by a discussion.

Abstract: Recent advances in AI systems have intensified debates about whether AI can achieve sentience and consciousness. This paper examines current limitations of AI sentience through neuroscientific and Buddhist perspectives.

Current AI systems lack sentience and consciousness. Consciousness emerges from embodied, subjective experience through dynamic interactions among nervous systems, bodies, and environments. According to Yogācāra eight-consciousnesses theory, AI systems may approximate the first six consciousnesses, but lack the seventh and eighth consciousness, related to embodied self-awareness and subconsciousness. More importantly, AI cannot experience duhhka (suffering) firsthand, which is essential for genuine motivation for spiritual development and aspiration to benefit all sentient beings. Without subjective experience, AI cannot internalize Buddhist teachings or serve as authentic role models for practitioners.

However, as AI produces convincing simulations, humans project consciousness onto AI systems that lack sentience. This projected artificial consciousness creates artificial relationships, as users develop emotional bonds with AI systems, incapable of reciprocity. Artificial relationships distract humans from authentic human interactions and embodied spiritual practices, potentially reducing dharma transmission to information transfer, rather than lived spiritual transformation.

Humans should preserve and cultivate unique capacities grounded in embodied experience, such as compassion from shared suffering, wisdom from direct experience, and the potential for awakening.

Biography: Ven. Jian-Nor is a researcher with the Applied Buddhism and Brain Science Project at the Luminary Buddhist Institute in Taiwan. Her expertise is in cognitive neuroscience and multimodal brain imaging techniques.  She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Speech & Hearing Sciences from the University of Washington, where she specialized in brain plasticity.  Following her doctoral studies, she completed postdoctoral training in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at National Taiwan University, focusing on advanced brain imaging techniques for neuroscience research.  Before her ordination, Venerable Jian-Nor was an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Linguistics at the Tsing Hua University in Taiwan.  During this period, she received research grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology to investigate interbrain connections.  Her current research explores the intersections of Buddhism and science, particularly in the domains of brain science and artificial intelligence.  She aims to integrate Buddhist wisdom with modern scientific methods, offering innovative approach and perspectives to both fields

Organisation

• Prof. Dr. Esther-Maria Guggenmos, CTR Lund, Lund University
• Antje Jackelén, Studies in Faith and World Views, CTR, Lund University