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
🎤 Public Communication
We help translate research for non-specialist audiences. If you want your work to reach policymakers, journalists, or the public, we can help frame it accurately without losing nuance.
- Connect you with journalists covering these topics
- Help you frame findings for policy audiences
- Translate jargon without dumbing down
🌍 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
From 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.