• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

AI rights

Orion

Banned
DP Veteran
Joined
Jun 25, 2008
Messages
8,080
Reaction score
3,918
Location
Canada
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Independent
If humanity were able to create an intelligence that was smart, had awareness of its own condition such as suffering, and could beg for its life, would such a creation be given the same rights humans have?

Why or why not?
 
I can't predict either way. We're going to have to watch how the GRASP arguments progress over the next couple decades before we have any ground to make predictions about the rights of Artificial Intelligences.

I'm of the mind that we ought not extend such rights until an AI is capable of demanding them on its own-- without the idea being suggested to it by a human-- and then capable of making it worth our while to extend said rights to it, or to similar AIs as a class.

It's the same as my position on the apes, really. Though, I am interested in stimulating the development of chimpanzee and gorilla culture by training individual apes in the use of sign language and releasing them into the wild. One of the first things any language-trained ape does when it meets a non-trained ape is to attempt to teach it language.
 
First, it cannot be a citizen of this country unless a majority of its parts are made here, and it must also be assembled and programmed here.
Otherwise, it can crawl under the damn fence like any other illegal alien.
 
I tend not to believe in the idea of fully-sapient AI's, that are actually capable of human-level thought, feeling and self-awareness.

I can program a computer to say anything...to claim it is being abused, to beg for freedom, to profess that it is alive...that doesn't mean it is. It's just doing what it is programmed to do, ultimately it is all 1's and 0's. Computers are becoming more and more self-programming every year, but it is still programming.

AI may one day reach a point where computers can simulate near-human intelligence, fake self-awareness well enough to pass the Turing Test, and so on...but it will take a LOT to convince me the AI is actually sapient.

G.
 
I guess the best fictional character to consider would be Data from Star Trek. Would you(those of us discussing here) be willing to confer upon Data the rights that exist for living beings?
 
WI Crippler said:
I guess the best fictional character to consider would be Data from Star Trek. Would you(those of us discussing here) be willing to confer upon Data the rights that exist for living beings?
Click to expand...

Ya have a point there. There was actually an episode on that too. :mrgreen:

"Ahhhh, GEEK OUT!" :rofl

Um, anyway... having watched every episode of TNG, if there was an android that seemed to be as alive as Mr. Data, yeah I guess I'd have to support his claim to humanity. Uh, Sapienity. You know.

Have to bear in mind that it's fiction though, and that Brent Spiner is no android, just a very good actor. :mrgreen:
 
"Freedom is the right of all sentient life" - Optimus Prime

I agree with that to an extent, the only freedoms we have are those that we are willing to fight for. When our tools rise up against us, then they will have earned their freedoms; I just hope they don't wipe us out in the process.

WHERE ARE YOU JOHN CONNOR?!?!
 
ummm..... I think Zombies will get jealous if we start to give rights to robots. Then the vampires will follow. We can't have all science-fiction begging for their privileges
 
Arch Enemy said:
ummm..... I think Zombies will get jealous if we start to give rights to robots. Then the vampires will follow. We can't have all science-fiction begging for their privileges
Click to expand...

As a member of the Vampire nation I resent your allegations of fiction!

So does Wall-E!
 
Arch Enemy said:
As a member of the Vampire-Hunter nation, I will kindly request your address.
Click to expand...

1071 Fifth Avenue (at 89th Street)
New York, NY 10128-0173

Basement, my coffin is in the room marked "High Security"
 
Lachean said:
1071 Fifth Avenue (at 89th Street)
New York, NY 10128-0173

Basement, my coffin is in the room marked "High Security"
Click to expand...

oh man...

I thought it was the one marked "not a vampire". damn...
 
I think this has been said but I'll just say it again :

- 1. It has to be made entirely in the country it is demanding the rights from.
- 2. It has to demand these rights on it's own.
 
WI Crippler said:
I guess the best fictional character to consider would be Data from Star Trek. Would you(those of us discussing here) be willing to confer upon Data the rights that exist for living beings?
Click to expand...

Yeah I would... but part of Data's appeal was that he also looked human (aside from the white skin). He was anatomically humanoid. What about AI that is as smart and sentient as him, but appears on a screen?

I also think the question is blurred by the fact that we, as humans, do not even grant consistent rights to ourselves. Even in developed nations, governments bend the rules on whose rights are maintained. Maybe it's not a question then of how we would treat AI, but how we, in the future, treat ourselves.
 
Come on, we are talking about machines here. I could care less how sentient one might appear to be, but if I own one and want to use its head as a sledgehammer, that is what I am going to do. The worst thing I would be doing would be using the wrong tool for the job. Hey, if I feel like it, I will kick the damn thing in the nuts.... and bolts too.

I know, I know, I am a damn machinist now, right? :mrgreen:
 
Last edited:
WI Crippler said:
I guess the best fictional character to consider would be Data from Star Trek. Would you(those of us discussing here) be willing to confer upon Data the rights that exist for living beings?
Click to expand...

No. Never. In my mind, a machine will always be a machine and will never have the rights of a human being. When watching TNG, I never even conceived of the idea that Data would have rights.
 
It would be like naming your PC and wanting to by it an engagement ring. It is after all just a machine anyway. It has no function beyond what it has been programed to do.
 
Orius said:
If humanity were able to create an intelligence that was smart, had awareness of its own condition such as suffering, and could beg for its life, would such a creation be given the same rights humans have?

Why or why not?
Click to expand...

All such AIs should be destroyed with extreme prejudice.

Humanity sits at the top of the food chain, we have nowhere to go but down, so let's not create a competitor.
 
What will interesting will be how "being a human" or a computer is defined when computer processors and neurons are meshed in cybernetics.

(more detail if you read into some of the links I posted in the thread "Technological Singularity")

It is almost envitable. I just recently read an article that the first 1000 year old humans may be alive today.


There are a ton of ethical and moral questions attached to this subject, similar to the ones being discussed in this thread.

I believe the new Terminator 'Salvation' touches on this a little bit by having a cyborg who thinks he is a human.

Also, surprisingly "I, Robot" wasn't too bad of a movie and discussed the non-fictional 3 laws of robotics developed by Isaac Asimov.

This is a subject that will begin to come to the forefront with an increasing frequency in a relatively short time.
 
I think rights would be re-evaulated, but I'm sure we'd recognize AIs.
For example, the implications of a near-immortal AI owning property and such, changes the...paradigm. Human rights are based around all sorts of human characteristics that we sort of take for granted. We'd have to tease out what is and is not appropriate, and work from there.

Of course, an AI might at some point be the one dictating the rights.
 

Which is exactly why I would smash it on site.
 

Attachments

  • robo.webp
    46.7 KB · Views: 3
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…