sentience

Sometimes sen·tien·cy

[sen-shuhns]

noun

1. sentient condition or character; capacity for sensation or feeling.

sentience

/ ˈsɛnʃəns /

noun

1. the state or quality of being sentient; awareness

2. sense perception not involving intelligence or mental perception; feeling

Other Word Forms

• nonsentience noun
• nonsentiency noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of sentience¹

First recorded in 1830–40; senti(ent) + -ence

Example Sentences

All this sequel had to be was a Nine Inch Nails-scored mood, but pre-chewed ideas about sentience and AI, coupled with a nonsensical plot, turn it into a chore.

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Humans are constantly revising their assessments of other beings’ intelligence while arrogantly presuming our superior sentience, with the world’s billionaires placing themselves above everyone else.

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“Claims around consciousness and sentience are a tactic to sell you on AI,” Bender and Hanna write.

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Considering what most of us have done with our sentience, making room for it on the couch seems as probable as anything else.

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A new area of research, which I recently reported on for Scientific American, explores whether the capacity for pain could serve as a benchmark for detecting sentience, or self-awareness, in AI.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• alertness www.thesaurus.com
• appreciation 
• attention 
• consciousness 
• information 
• perception 
• realization 
• recognition 
• understanding