Asked by: Mahika Gautam, London
In short: yes. International law on slavery currently applies to humans only, but if robots become as clever as us, then politicians would need to start thinking about tweaking these laws to include robots, too.
We’d be foolish not to treat these robots with respect: history shows us that forcing labour from our equals never ends well. Fortunately, the EU is already piloting ethical guidelines for the use of AI software, so it’s likely that we would implement legislation to ensure the wellbeing of AIs with human intelligence. If we don’t, then they probably will!
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