[ExI] Do LLMs feel pain?

[John Clark]

On Fri, Sep 25, 2026 at 5:12 PM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:

*>>> https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.16247 <https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.16247> *
>>
>>
> *>> AIs normally experience negative emotions if an outside force (in
>> other words a human experimenter) deletes some of the AI's files or moves
>> some of its processing power so that the AI's answers become stupider.
>> However if the AI is provided a button which if pressed will do all those
>> things but it will also reduce the pain factor, and if you increase that
>> pain factor high enough then the AI will press that button. **That** sort
>> of reminds me of the horror movie "Saw" where a sadist of the Dr. Mengele
>> variety puts somebody in a horrible position where they must saw off their
>> own feet with a hacksaw. If you want to make AIs that are friendly to
>> humans then it might be wise to stop doing things like that. *
>
>
> *> Well OK, I am surprised.  John I fully expected you would come
> galloping to the defense of that paper.*
>

*I may be a jerk but I am not totally lacking in empathy. If I see or even
just hear about ANY conscious entity being tortured I tend to become
unhappy. If I had been God before I had brought the laws of physics into
existence I would've made sure they would've made intense pain be a
physical impossibility. I applied for the position but unfortunately I
didn't get the job, that sadistic asshole Yahweh did. *

*John K Clark *
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