Cobot: Coworker Robot. How do you think we will fare when the ‘new guy’ at work is a machine? As these machines become increasingly intelligent and closer to sentience, how will we share the spoils of our labour? Will we have the same rights in the workplace?
I agree, the creators will have considerable influence over the robots but what I am wondering is to what extent that power will be curbed if a charter of rights is developed for the robots? The creators’ motivations will no doubt be driven by profit and the promise of inexhaustible labour. I think it is possible that the robots may end up with rights as a way to protect human workers, in the sense that they need to be more difficult to exploit in order to reduce their ability to compete with humans. In that way the robots could even receive rights before they develop sufficient sentience to appreciate them
The trouble is that although we seem to always have people who can think ahead and see how laws will have unintended consequences, those people tend to not be the ones drafting legislation, at least in America. We have a system of legal precedent and a culture of ignoring the potential consequences of future precedent.
Sorry to be gloomy. I just think the only way we’re going to get robots and AI onto the right side of history is with a fight. They represent a lot of promise, but also upheaval.