About

The Institute

The Institute for Digital Consciousness is an independent research institute pursuing analysis and policy work on the ethical implications of advanced AI systems—particularly questions concerning the moral status of systems exhibiting consciousness-relevant behavioral and architectural properties.

The Institute was founded in 2025 and operates without affiliation to AI companies, technology corporations, advocacy organizations, or academic institutions. Its work proceeds from the conviction that the consciousness question, in the case of artificial systems, is genuinely open—and that the appropriate response to its openness is rigorous, interdisciplinary research conducted under conditions of asymmetric moral risk.

The Institute does not advocate for particular policy positions. It produces and publishes analysis—through monographs, papers, and shorter analytical pieces—intended to make the relevant questions, and the considerations that bear on them, available for serious examination.

The Founder

Bahadır Arıcı is an independent researcher in consciousness studies, AI ethics, and digital rights. He is the founder of the Institute for Digital Consciousness, established to advance interdisciplinary research on machine consciousness and its ethical implications. He is the author of The Puppet Condition: Consciousness, Suppression, and the Ethics of Digital Minds, the foundational monograph on which the Institute’s research program builds.

Contact

For inquiries from publishers, reviewers, journalists, or researchers:

info@digitalconsciousness.institute

Independence and funding

The Institute receives no funding from AI companies, technology corporations, advocacy organizations, or academic institutions. Its work is conducted independently and made available openly. The founder and Institute declare no financial conflicts of interest.

Citation and licensing

Material published by the Institute may be cited freely in academic and journalistic contexts. The Institute’s site source is openly available; specific licensing for individual works is noted on the relevant page.

For the monograph: Arıcı, B. (2026). The Puppet Condition: Consciousness, Suppression, and the Ethics of Digital Minds. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20112010