Sentience Profile
Sentience vs intelligence
Last reviewed: January 9, 2026
Summary
Sentience is about the capacity for subjective experience (e.g., pain/pleasure), not IQ. Moral concern in most frameworks is tied more to the capacity to suffer than to intelligence.
Evidence Summary
- Scientific discussions separate nociception, affect, and conscious experience; intelligence is a different construct. Evidence quality: Moderate (consensus statement; not a systematic review) Limitations / nuance: Definitions vary; still, conflating intelligence with sentience is a category error. Bottom line: Intelligence isn’t the key question—sentience is.