This reminds me of the idea that free will doesn't exist, but that we have to act as if it were.
So by analogy to that, maybe the AI isn't really suffering, but you have to act as if it were.
More food for thought:
Some surgery blocks memory but can be incredibly painful. Do we need to worry about that? Is the suffering that the brain can not remember "real"?
This reminds me of the idea that free will doesn't exist, but that we have to act as if it were.
So by analogy to that, maybe the AI isn't really suffering, but you have to act as if it were.
More food for thought:
Some surgery blocks memory but can be incredibly painful. Do we need to worry about that? Is the suffering that the brain can not remember "real"?