European Parliament to debate 'human' rights for robots

MEPs to ponder robot rights, on the one hand, and kill switches on the other.

The European Parliament is today debating whether 'human' rights should be extended to robots and other machines with artificial intelligence.

Also under consideration is whether robots should have a 'kill' switch installed by default, which would appear to contradict the concept of a robots having rights.

The BBC claims that the vote might go a long way to determining whether robots are "electronic persons".

It all comes after one report (PDF) suggested that Europe needs to prepare for a new industrial revolution.

"From Mary Shelley's Frankenstein's Monster to the classical myth of Pygmalion, through the story of Prague's Golem to the robot of Karel Čapek, who coined the word, people have fantasised about the possibility of building intelligent machines, more often than not androids with human features…"

"Now that humankind stands on the threshold of an era when ever more sophisticated robots, bots, androids and other manifestations of artificial intelligence seem poised to unleash a new industrial revolution, which is likely to leave no stratum of society untouched, it is vitally important for the legislature to consider all its implications."

There is a lot for the MEPs to consider in the report. It takes in the idea that robots might soon dominate humans in terms of brain power and that we might all have to start taking Asimov's rules on robotics to heart each and every day of our lives.

"Ultimately there is a possibility that within the space of a few decades AI could surpass human intellectual capacity in a manner which, if not prepared for, could pose a challenge to humanity's capacity to control its own creation and, consequently, perhaps also to its capacity to be in charge of its own destiny and to ensure the survival of the species," it explained, adding that it is the Dr Frankensteins that should assume responsibility for any problems.

"Until such time, if ever, that robots become or are made self-aware, Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics must be regarded as being directed at the designers, producers and operators of robots, since those laws cannot be converted into machine code."