  Many studies have identified particular features of artificial intelligences
(AI), such as their autonomy and emotion expression, that affect the extent to
which they are treated as subjects of moral consideration. However, there has
not yet been a comparison of the relative importance of features as is
necessary to design and understand increasingly capable, multi-faceted AI
systems. We conducted an online conjoint experiment in which 1,163 participants
evaluated descriptions of AIs that varied on these features. All 11 features
increased how morally wrong participants considered it to harm the AIs. The
largest effects were from human-like physical bodies and prosociality (i.e.,
emotion expression, emotion recognition, cooperation, and moral judgment). For
human-computer interaction designers, the importance of prosociality suggests
that, because AIs are often seen as threatening, the highest levels of moral
consideration may only be granted if the AI has positive intentions.
