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?
If a robot is willing to withhold their labor to negotiate better terms with the bosses, then they are friends.
That is a very good point, the world would be a far darker place if the concept of withholding labour hadn’t come about. Another question - what would make the robots want to strike?
I’ll answer with a question of my own: how many AI development firms aren’t anti-union, or funded by union busters?
Well put. I imagine they will be programmed with that as a constraint. The fourth law of robotics
Perhaps should be. Will they be, though?
I suppose that will be based on what we consider their rights to be. Perhaps an employer will still have some kind of obligation to the welfare of these robots in the sense that they will require maintenance and protection of the integrity of the hardware and software
It seems like the disconnect we’re having is that I’m focused on who is creating and owning them and where their motives lie, while you seem more interested in what choices would presumably lead to optimal outcomes for society.
I agree that there should be thoughtful and future-proof rules and legal protections for and from AI to create room for humans, robots, and everything in between to cooperate peacefully toward a better world.
I worry that the people who stand to profit the most from AI (its creators) are rather interested in creating and exploiting limitless legal free labor and becoming a unstoppably wealthy and powerful faster than anyone can legislate such behavior away.
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.