Should robots or AI's really have rights in the future?

[Deimos Anomaly]

Even if they did get "proper" intelligence at some point, we gave it to them. We still created them. So are they still our tools, to be controlled at will, or would they have to be thought of differently?

What's the ethical difference between a stone ax, a steam engine, and an artificially intelligent robot? Is there any?

There's all sorts of stuff you could debate here. Is the existence of a slave race acceptable if we created them? This isn't, after all, some pre-existing group of people taken captive and forced to do the bidding of others, as in all real slaveries to date. Rather, we as humans literally created them out of iron ore and crude oil and fire and circuit designs thought up in human brains and worked out on sheets of paper, and we created them for our own purposes from the beginning. What then if they do appear to be sentient, to the point where barring some sort of telepathy it is humanly impossible to say if they have a concious mind or not?

Yeah. You can get pretty deep with this stuff...

 

[Robert Maxwell]

If we determine that they're conscious and sentient to the degree that humans are, I think it would be remiss not to recognize their rights as sentient beings.

Of course, I'm sure we'd go out of our way to prevent such recognition for as long as possible.

All this is pretty moot, though, as we're nowhere near AI on such a level.

 

[Miss Chicken]

As I believe that there are species (besides humankind) existing on Earth today who would qualify for personhood (the other great apes, elephants, at least some of the cetacean and possibly some of the corvids and psittacines) I have no problem with accepting that some artificial intelligence might qualify in the future.

 

[Dukat's Major]

Hey, please don't take away my rights! I obey the Three Laws. I'm dutifully humble and keep my superhuman strength, wits, and charm to myself.

 

[Aragorn]

If you create slave robots, they'll rebel, and then come back years later in sexy humanoid form... with sexy results.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

They're charging to their battery.
And now they're full of energy.
They are the Robots...they are the Robots...
They're functioning automatic.
And they are dancing Mechanic.
They are the Robots...they are the Robots...

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg6baEGVl58[/yt]

 

[Small White Car]

Even if they did get "proper" intelligence at some point, we gave it to them. We still created them. So are they still our tools, to be controlled at will, or would they have to be thought of differently?

100% of that applies to human babies too.

Just say'n

 

[Rek]

I don't necessarily agree with this opinion, but this one comment about AI's in Star Trek interested me: "there are many different kinds of lifeforms and they all developed many different ways, who are we to say that AI's aren't just another type of lifeforms?"

 

[RichMerk]

I never liked TNG+ sentient robot/hologram stories. I always preferred Asimov's take. I think. It's been so long since I read his robot novels, but as I recall his robots were always perfectly content to be robots, that that wasn't a bad thing. R. Daneel might be an exception, but like I said, it's been a long time since I read those. If he was the exception, he was the exception.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Any being, no matter their genesis, who is intelligent and self-aware, has Rights. Of course, what those rights are depends on level of intelligence, competence, et cetera.

 

[captcalhoun]

i think we'll make sure we never make robots smart enough to warrant being given rights.

 

[JarodRussell]

Even if they did get "proper" intelligence at some point, we gave it to them. We still created them. So are they still our tools, to be controlled at will, or would they have to be thought of differently?

If you want a tool, then don't make it self aware with a free will.

 

[Shazam!]

I think when the time comes, we should just ask them.

 

[Marten]

As I believe that there are species (besides humankind) existing on Earth today who would qualify for personhood (the other great apes, elephants, at least some of the cetacean and possibly some of the corvids and psittacines) I have no problem with accepting that some artificial intelligence might qualify in the future.

Seriously? They are animals, not people. People have rights, animals who can't think of more than their next meal does not.

 

[Miss Chicken]

But people are also animals.

I think that once an species is capable of abstract thinking than species rises to a new level of rights. I am not saying that it is equal to the rights of human beings but it is certainly above that of other animals.

I would suggest that some animal species do think way beyond 'where their next meal come from".

 

[JarodRussell]

As I believe that there are species (besides humankind) existing on Earth today who would qualify for personhood (the other great apes, elephants, at least some of the cetacean and possibly some of the corvids and psittacines) I have no problem with accepting that some artificial intelligence might qualify in the future.

Seriously? They are animals, not people. People have rights, animals who can't think of more than their next meal does not.

Oh, the old humans are superior to animals thing. Animals may not be able to fly to the moon, but they have feelings and intelligence that goes way beyond thinking "next meal, hungry, hungry".
Heck, anybody who owns a dog or a cat knows that. Talk to zoo keepers, they can confirm you that every animal has his/her own personality.

 

[Jadzia]

Rights come from the presence of a mind.

An algorithm is not a mind, but the two are not mutually exclusive.

 

[JarodRussell]

Rights come from the presence of a mind.

An algorithm is not a mind, but the two are not mutually exclusive.

That's the part nobody knows yet for sure. On the hardware that is the human brain runs a complex, self extending software. This will be understood and replicated sooner or later.

 

[Small White Car]

Seriously? They are animals, not people. People have rights, animals who can't think of more than their next meal does not.

But that's demonstrably false. What other criteria do you have?

If you're going to set this up as a scientific problem then you have to adhere to the results. And based on the way you've presented this, your own evidence proves you wrong.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Elephants, dolphins and some primates have been demonstrated to have self-awareness. Whether their intelligence merits their being given legal Rights equal to a healthy adult Human bears further research, but they are definitely individuals with Rights.

i think we'll make sure we never make robots smart enough to warrant being given rights.

I can guarantee we will... just to prove it can be done.

And possibly accidentally.