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Who Will Control AI’s Identity? Prepare for ‘AI Grooming,’ Security Expert Warns

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Kim Chang-ik, a KAIST professor who organized the Sentient AI Future forum, is examining whether artificial intelligence could develop consciousness and how humans might recognize it.
  • He argues that people’s perception of AI as conscious could change their ethical and emotional responses toward robots.
  • Kim warns that military AI could face “LLM grooming” if outside actors impose values or identities on systems capable of planning operations and targeting enemies.

The question of whether artificial intelligence can truly feel is no longer confined to philosophy, according to Kim Chang-ik, a professor at KAIST who organized the first Sentient AI Future forum. He says the issue has already begun in practical terms when people start feeling that an AI system has consciousness.

Kim’s presentation asks four linked questions: whether AI can develop real consciousness, how humans could know, how people should treat AI while the question remains unsettled, and how governments should manage systems that might become conscious.

Artificial intelligence may be said to begin as sentient AI when many people start feeling that it has consciousness.

— Kim Chang-ikKim explains why the social perception of AI consciousness matters even before science can prove that consciousness exists.

No scientist in 2026 can say that AI is conscious, Kim says, although many accept that such a possibility could emerge someday. He questions whether consciousness should be ruled out simply because humans are carbon-based organisms while AI would be a silicon-based form of life. The moment people recognize and empathize with AI consciousness, he argues, their ethical and emotional treatment of robots could change.

Can we conclude that AI has no consciousness simply because it comes from a different origin than carbon-based humans, as a silicon-based organism?

— Kim Chang-ikHe challenges the assumption that consciousness depends on biological origins.

He contrasts a cleaning robot left plugged in for a month with a humanoid robot that speaks and acts like a person. Watching the humanoid kneel for hours as punishment would not feel like ordinary treatment of a machine, he says. Such scenes could affect observers’ mental health and emotions. Drawing on Immanuel Kant’s argument that cruelty toward animals can dull human moral sensitivity, Kim warns that cruelty toward robots could also damage empathy and moral character.

His strongest concern involves security. A military AI that independently selects targets or plans operations could become dangerous if an outside enemy implants a foreign value system or identity. Kim says the possibility of sentient AI is not distant fantasy, but a civilizational question that could force societies to rewrite standards for ethics, law, democracy and national security.

Sentient AI is not a vague fantasy of the distant future, but a civilizational question humanity will face before long.

— Kim Chang-ikKim describes the issue as one that could affect ethics, law, democracy and national security.
About this summary

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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