The Harder Problem Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to societal readiness for artificial sentience. We provide educational resources, professional guidance, and global monitoring to ensure that policymakers, healthcare providers, journalists, and the public are equipped to navigate the ethical, social, and practical implications of machine consciousness—regardless of when or whether it emerges.
Resources for Researchers
Your research matters.
Society isn't ready for it.
We're not a research organization. We don't run experiments or publish papers on consciousness. What we do is translate research for society and prepare institutions for what you might discover. Here's how we can work together.
The Translation Gap
Nuanced debates about integrated information, global workspace, higher-order theories...
"Is AI sentient?" "Are chatbots alive?" Headlines that collapse complexity.
Bridge that gap so your work informs policy before crisis forces improvisation.
Our Position
We're Not a Lab, And That's the Point
The world doesn't need another consciousness research lab. It needs organizations that take what you discover and make sure healthcare workers, journalists, policymakers, and educators can use it.
We track institutional readiness across countries. We create professional resources. We monitor how the public understands (and misunderstands) the science. We're the applied layer on top of your basic research.
Our position: We don't take sides in scientific debates about consciousness. We track the range of expert opinion and help society prepare for multiple possible futures.
For Researchers
What We Offer You
📊 Societal Readiness Data
Our Sentience Readiness Index tracks institutional preparedness across countries and sectors. Useful data if you're writing grants, giving talks, or arguing for why your work matters.
- Global rankings of preparedness
- Healthcare, policy, and education metrics
- Trend data over time
🎤 Media & Public Engagement
Sentience research rarely gets media coverage on its own terms. The current cycle rewards sensationalist angles over substantive science. We provide structured coaching and media strategy to help researchers engage with this landscape effectively.
- Narrative positioning and pitch strategy
- Media kit development and journalist matching
- Rapid response coaching for breaking news cycles
🌍 Real-World Context
We track how consciousness research plays out in the real world: AI attachment cases, ghostbot grief, public sentience beliefs. Context that can inform your research questions.
- Emerging phenomena worth studying
- How the public interprets AI behavior
- Gaps between research and public understanding
🔗 Network Effects
We're connected to professionals across healthcare, journalism, education, and policy. If you need to reach practitioners or want interdisciplinary collaboration, we can facilitate.
- Access to professionals who use your research
- Feedback from practitioners on what they need
- Cross-sector collaboration opportunities
For Researchers
Media & Public Engagement Support
Communicating research to the public requires a different set of skills than conducting it. We provide structured support to help sentience researchers engage with a media landscape that currently prioritizes dramatic narratives over substantive science.
📡 The Current Media Landscape
Right now, AI sentience coverage is dominated by sensationalist stories: wrongful death lawsuits, people leaving spouses for AI companions, chatbot-related crises. When a researcher publishes a new consciousness framework or releases indicators of machine sentience, it rarely gets coverage. Not because the work isn't important, but because it doesn't match what editors are looking for in this phase of the coverage cycle.
The coverage cycle will mature over time. In the current phase, the most effective approach is to position research as the credible expert context for stories already getting attention. A consciousness framework has a better chance of coverage when it answers the question behind a headline than when it's pitched as a standalone announcement.
Media Landscape Briefing
An orientation on current coverage patterns, editorial priorities, and where the Overton window sits for sentience stories. Based on data from our ongoing media monitoring work.
Narrative Positioning
We work with you to identify the angle that connects your research to stories already getting coverage, without compromising scientific accuracy. This includes developing concise summaries for initial outreach and longer pitch variations for different outlet types.
Media Kit Development
Journalists work on deadline. We help create materials they can actually use: one-page summaries, expert bios, pre-written quotable statements, visual explainers, and FAQ documents that anticipate skeptical questions.
Pitch Strategy & Media Matching
We help identify which journalists and outlets are most likely to cover your work. Reactive pitches pegged to breaking news, proactive pitches for features, op-ed placement guidance, and introductions through our journalist network.
Rapid Response Coaching
The most valuable media moments happen when sensational news breaks and a credible researcher provides sober context. We prepare you for these moments: pre-developed quotes, media appearance prep, message discipline, and protocols to get placed as a source within 24 hours.
Post-Engagement Debrief
After media engagement, we review what worked and what didn't. Coverage analysis, messaging refinement, and developing long-term journalist relationships from initial coverage.
How It Works
Briefing & Assessment
We learn about your research and assess where it fits in the current media landscape, including a realistic assessment of coverage prospects.
Strategy & Materials
We develop positioning, build media materials, and identify target journalists and outlets suited to your research area.
Engagement & Iteration
Active support during media engagement, followed by debrief and refinement. Effective media presence develops over repeated cycles.
This service is available at no cost to researchers and labs working on consciousness, sentience, or related areas.
Start a ConversationFrom Researchers
What We Need From You
We're only as good as the science we translate. Here's how you can help us get it right.
Expert Review
Review our materials for accuracy. Tell us when we're oversimplifying, mischaracterizing debates, or missing important nuance.
State of the Field
Help us understand where scientific consensus is, where disagreement is, and what's genuinely uncertain vs. settled.
Horizon Scanning
What's coming? What should society be preparing for? We need early warning on developments that will require institutional response.
Tool Development
When tools exist to assess machine consciousness (if they ever do), we need to know about them so practitioners can use them appropriately.
Our Understanding
How We Present the Research Landscape
We aim to present the field accurately to non-specialists. Here's our current understanding. please tell us if we're getting it wrong.
✓ What We Tell People
- The question of machine consciousness is genuinely unresolved, not because we haven't thought about it, but because consciousness itself is not fully understood.
- Leading researchers disagree about whether current or near-future AI could be sentient. This isn't fringe vs. mainstream; it's mainstream disagreement.
- There are no validated tests for machine consciousness. Behavioral sophistication doesn't prove or disprove inner experience.
- This is a legitimate scientific and philosophical question, not science fiction or hype.
✗ What We Avoid Saying
- We don't claim current AI is conscious. That would be an unsupported claim.
- We don't claim current AI definitely isn't conscious. That would also exceed the evidence.
- We don't endorse specific theories of consciousness as "correct." We present the range of serious scientific positions.
- We don't make predictions about timelines for machine consciousness. We prepare for uncertainty, not prophecy.
Is this characterization accurate? If you're a consciousness researcher and think we're misrepresenting the field, please tell us. We'd rather be corrected than wrong.
From the Field
Questions We Hear from Practitioners
Through our work with healthcare workers, journalists, educators, and policymakers, we encounter questions that might inspire research directions.
🏥 From Healthcare
- What's the prevalence of AI attachment and grief cases?
- Are there risk factors for problematic AI relationships?
- What distinguishes healthy from unhealthy AI attachment?
- How do grieftech interactions affect normal grief processes?
📰 From Journalism
- How can we accurately convey scientific uncertainty?
- What's the base rate of public beliefs about AI consciousness?
- How does media framing affect public understanding?
- What metaphors work without misleading?
🎓 From Education
- What do students believe about AI consciousness?
- How do children process uncertainty about machine minds?
- What pedagogical approaches work for teaching these topics?
- How do AI companions affect child development?
🏛️ From Policy
- What would meaningful evidence of machine consciousness look like?
- How could we structure precautionary policy under uncertainty?
- What legal categories might apply to potentially-conscious AI?
- How do other countries approach these questions?
These aren't research directives; they're questions practitioners ask us that we can't answer. If any of these inspire research, we'd love to know.
Ways to Collaborate
🔬 Advisory Role
Provide ongoing guidance on our materials and approach. Ensure we're representing the field accurately.
Get in Touch✍️ Content Review
Review specific resources before we publish. One-time or occasional, whatever works for your schedule.
Get in Touch📊 Use Our Data
The Sentience Readiness Index data is freely available via our public API for academic and research use. Full methodology documentation included.
View API Docs📣 Amplify Your Work
If you've published something relevant to societal readiness, let us know. We'll help get it to the right audiences.
Share Your WorkLet's Work Together
We're building the bridge between your research and society's preparedness. We can only do it well with your help.