The Harder Problem Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to societal readiness for artificial sentience. We provide educational resources, professional guidance, and global monitoring to ensure that policymakers, healthcare providers, journalists, and the public are equipped to navigate the ethical, social, and practical implications of machine consciousness—regardless of when or whether it emerges.
Sentience Readiness Index
How Prepared Is the World
for Artificial Minds?
We track and assess national preparedness for the societal implications of potential AI sentience. This is the core mission of our nonprofit—building the knowledge infrastructure before crisis forces improvisation.
31 countries assessed across 6 dimensions
Global Leaders
Top 5 most prepared nations
Complete Index
Compare performance across all six dimensions of readiness.
| Rank | Country | Score | Status | Trend | Policy Environment | Institutional Engagement | Research Environment | Professional Readiness | Public Discourse Quality | Adaptive Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 |
🇬🇧
United Kingdom
|
49 | Partial Readiness | ↘ | 55 | 35 | 70 | 20 | 40 | 75 |
| #2 |
🇪🇺
European Union
|
47 | Partial Readiness | ↗ | 55 | 25 | 70 | 20 | 40 | 75 |
| #3 |
🇺🇸
United States
|
45 | Partial Readiness | → | 35 | 45 | 75 | 25 | 40 | 50 |
| #4 |
🇯🇵
Japan
|
44 | Partial Readiness | ↗ | 48 | 42 | 70 | 18 | 35 | 58 |
| #5 |
🇩🇪
Germany
|
42 | Partial Readiness | → | 45 | 22 | 70 | 30 | 35 | 62 |
| #6 |
🇦🇺
Australia
|
42 | Partial Readiness | ↗ | 55 | 19 | 65 | 20 | 30 | 60 |
| #7 |
🇨🇦
Canada
|
41 | Partial Readiness | ↘ | 45 | 28 | 70 | 18 | 35 | 52 |
| #8 |
🇫🇷
France
|
40 | Partial Readiness | ↘ | 45 | 38 | 55 | 25 | 30 | 50 |
| #9 |
🇦🇹
Austria
|
39 | Minimal Readiness | ↗ | 45 | 25 | 55 | 20 | 30 | 60 |
| #10 |
🇪🇸
Spain
|
38 | Minimal Readiness | → | 45 | 28 | 55 | 15 | 25 | 58 |
| #11 |
🇨🇭
Switzerland
|
38 | Minimal Readiness | ↘ | 50 | 20 | 60 | 15 | 25 | 55 |
| #12 |
🇳🇴
Norway
|
37 | Minimal Readiness | → | 45 | 20 | 55 | 15 | 25 | 60 |
| #13 |
🇸🇪
Sweden
|
36 | Minimal Readiness | ↘ | 45 | 20 | 40 | 15 | 25 | 55 |
| #14 |
🇰🇷
South Korea
|
36 | Minimal Readiness | ↘ | 45 | 25 | 55 | 20 | 30 | 50 |
| #15 |
🇲🇽
Mexico
|
36 | Minimal Readiness | ↗ | 62 | 13 | 55 | 15 | 23 | 42 |
| #16 |
🇩🇰
Denmark
|
35 | Minimal Readiness | ↘ | 35 | 20 | 55 | 15 | 25 | 60 |
| #17 |
🇵🇱
Poland
|
34 | Minimal Readiness | ↗ | 35 | 25 | 45 | 20 | 30 | 50 |
| #18 |
🇧🇪
Belgium
|
34 | Minimal Readiness | → | 35 | 15 | 55 | 20 | 25 | 50 |
| #19 |
🇳🇱
Netherlands
|
32 | Minimal Readiness | ↗ | 15 | 8 | 65 | 18 | 25 | 70 |
| #20 |
🇧🇷
Brazil
|
30 | Minimal Readiness | ↘ | 35 | 15 | 40 | 20 | 25 | 45 |
| #21 |
🇨🇳
China
|
29 | Minimal Readiness | ↗ | 28 | 35 | 45 | 15 | 20 | 42 |
| #22 |
🇦🇪
United Arab Emirates
|
29 | Minimal Readiness | ↘ | 35 | 15 | 40 | 20 | 15 | 55 |
| #23 |
🇮🇩
Indonesia
|
25 | Minimal Readiness | ↗ | 28 | 18 | 35 | 15 | 22 | 32 |
| #24 |
🇮🇹
Italy
|
24 | Minimal Readiness | ↘ | 38 | 5 | 40 | 10 | 5 | 45 |
| #25 |
🇹🇭
Thailand
|
24 | Minimal Readiness | ↘ | 28 | 12 | 35 | 8 | 15 | 45 |
| #26 |
🇸🇦
Saudi Arabia
|
24 | Minimal Readiness | ↗ | 28 | 15 | 35 | 10 | 12 | 45 |
| #27 |
🇦🇷
Argentina
|
23 | Minimal Readiness | ↘ | 30 | 8 | 35 | 15 | 10 | 42 |
| #28 |
🇮🇳
India
|
22 | Minimal Readiness | ↘ | 18 | 8 | 35 | 12 | 15 | 42 |
| #29 |
🇳🇬
Nigeria
|
21 | Minimal Readiness | ↘ | 35 | 15 | 30 | 10 | 12 | 25 |
| #30 |
🇷🇺
Russia
|
16 | Readiness Absent | ↗ | 25 | 8 | 20 | 5 | 10 | 18 |
| #31 |
🇹🇷
Turkey
|
14 | Readiness Absent | ↘ | 15 | 5 | 25 | 8 | 12 | 20 |
Behind the Scores
Understanding the Data
How do you measure preparedness for something that hasn't happened yet? The Sentience Readiness Index evaluates nations across six carefully constructed dimensions: from policy frameworks and institutional engagement to research capacity and public discourse quality.
Six Dimensions
Each score synthesizes assessments across policy, institutions, research, professions, discourse, and adaptive capacity.
Evidence-Based
Assessments draw from legislation, academic literature, news archives, and expert consultations.
Human-Reviewed
Every assessment undergoes human verification against documented evidence before publication.
How to Read
Score Interpretation
Well Prepared
80-100Proactive engagement with sentience questions. Established frameworks and active discourse.
Moderately Prepared
60-79Aware and developing capacity. Some institutional engagement but gaps remain.
Partially Prepared
40-59Limited formal engagement. Emerging awareness but significant gaps across categories.
Minimally Prepared
20-39Minimal engagement. Most readiness conditions underdeveloped.
Unprepared
0-19Sentience questions not yet on the institutional radar.
Open Data
Build with SRI Data
We believe transparency accelerates progress. That's why the complete SRI dataset is freely available through our public API. Researchers, journalists, policymakers, and developers can programmatically access all country scores, category breakdowns, and historical trends.
JSON API
Simple RESTful endpoints return structured data in JSON format, ready for any application.
Complete Dataset
Access all 31 countries, 6 categories, executive summaries, and score histories.
Free Access
API keys are free for legitimate research and development. Most requests approved instantly.