Artificial intelligence should get the same ethical protections as animals
Before we create an AI with humanlike sophistication deserving humanlike ethical consideration, we will very likely create an AI with less-than-human sophistication, deserving some less-than-human ethical consideration.
You might think that AIs don’t deserve that sort of ethical protection unless they are conscious–that is, unless they have a genuine stream of experience, with real joy and suffering. We agree. But now we face a tricky philosophical question: how will we know when we have created something capable of joy and suffering?
Discussions of “AI risk” normally focus on the risks that new AI technologies might pose to us humans, such as taking over the world and destroying us, or at least gumming up our banking system. Much less discussed is the ethical risk we pose to the AIs, through our possible mistreatment of them.
See the full story here: https://www.fastcompany.com/90340920/artificial-intelligence-should-get-the-same-ethical-protections-as-animals