Do bots feel bad? Assessing empirical evidence for functional valence in LLMs

The article examines whether large language models (LLMs) possess functional valenced states—states that feel pleasant or unpleasant—by reviewing recent empirical claims of functional pleasure, pain, emotions, and welfare in LLMs. It argues that many core aspects of valence remain untested in these models and that current experiments cannot clearly separate functional valence from related constructs such as preferences, value judgments, valence attributions, and role‑play. The author proposes new experimental designs aimed at more directly probing functional valence in LLMs.

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• llms