Every day, artificial intelligence is becoming more and more perfect. However, the question of our “moral duty” to high technology is still open, writes the English edition of the Independent.
Imagine a world where people live side by side with beings that have mind, thoughts, feelings, self-awareness and the ability to perform purposeful actions. True, unlike humans, they have mechanical bodies that can be turned on and off.
There would be many problems in this brave new world, argues Independent columnist Hugh MacLachlan. How should we behave with fellow robots? What moral obligations will we have to them? And what rights will intelligent robots have? Is it permissible to try to prevent them from appearing, or are we obligated to improve them?
Many are sure that “artificial people” will never exist. And it is logical that only those who have living bodies and possess consciousness can count on human respect and sympathy. However, the French sociologist Émile Durkheim argued that one should beware of generalizations. For example, social phenomena such as language cannot exist without the interaction of individuals with their specific psychological and biological characteristics.
Perhaps we should also not assume that the mind is reduced to the presence of a brain and the various elements necessary for its functioning. Based on this philosophy, the mind can arise from other combinations and interactions of elements that are not found in the human body. And there seems to be no reason why the ability to think and make decisions could not appear in the machine that man created.
On April 22, 2021, Rospatent, together with Yandex and Gazprombank, will hold an international conference “Digital Transformation: Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence Trends” on the legal regulation of AI and the challenges for the state and business arising from the rapid development of this technology. The event will be held online, so the number of participants is not limited.