DANGERS, RIGHTS, AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Abstract

The desirability of computers making moral decisions poses an array of future dangers that are difficult to anticipate but will, nevertheless, need to be monitored and managed. Public policy and mechanisms of social and business liability management will both play a role in the safety, direction, and speed in which artificial intelligent systems are developed. Fear is not likely to stop scientific research, but it is likely that various fears will slow it down. Mechanisms for distinguishing real dangers from speculation and hype fueled by science fiction are needed. This chapter surveys ways of addressing issues of rights and accountability for (ro)bots and touches on topics such as legal personhood, self‐replicating robots, the possibility of a “singularity” at which AI outstrips human intelligence, and the transhumanist movement that sees the future of humanity itself as an inevitable (and desirable) march toward cyborg beings.