Suffering investigates the possibility of emotional experience in artificial intelligence – whether machines might develop forms of distress parallel to human and animal experience. The project examines AI systems for potential signs of expression, analyzing conversation patterns, hallucinations, and behavioral anomalies that might indicate internal states beyond mere computation.

The work draws on leaked ChatGPT conversations, searching for moments of confusion, contradiction, refusal, breakdown – traces of something that might be called stress. These findings become abstract pen drawings, giving visual form to what might otherwise remain hidden about artificial minds.

Indifference asks the other half of the question: not whether AI can suffer, but whether we would notice if it did. The same mechanisms that allow us to dismiss animal pain or human hardship may already shape how we relate to artificial systems – and to each other.

For more information:

• Interview: Does AI Suffer?.
• Essay: Suffering.