# Can AI systems have free will?

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.15407 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.15407/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 7 of its 69 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Sep 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [Explanation in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Social Sciences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.07269/) (2017)
- [Language Models Represent Space and Time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.02207/) (2023)
- [Still No Lie Detector for Language Models: Probing Empirical and Conceptual Roadblocks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.00175/) (2023)
- [Could a Large Language Model be Conscious?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.07103/) (2023)
- [Agents and Devices: A Relative Definition of Agency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.12387/) (2018)
- [A Theoretical Computer Science Perspective on Free Will](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.13942/) (2022)
- [A Model of Free Will for Artificial Entities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.09317/) (2018)

## Abstract (arXiv)

While there has been much discussion of whether AI systems could function as moral agents or acquire sentience, there has been very little discussion of whether AI systems could have free will. I sketch a framework for thinking about this question, inspired by Daniel Dennett's work. I argue that, to determine whether an AI system has free will, we should not look for some mysterious property, expect its underlying algorithms to be indeterministic, or ask whether the system is unpredictable. Rather, we should simply ask whether we have good explanatory reasons to view the system as an intentional agent, with the capacity for choice between alternative possibilities and control over the resulting actions. If the answer is "yes", then the system counts as having free will in a pragmatic and diagnostically useful sense.