Viewpoint: Rights for Autonomous Artificial Agents?

It is a commonplace occurrence today that computer programs, which arise from the area of research in artificial intelligence known as intelligent agents, function autonomously and competently; they work without human supervision, learn, and, while remaining just programmed entities, are capable of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications of the ACM 2010-08, Vol.53 (8), p.38
Main Author: Chopra, Samir
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Artificial intelligence
Civil rights
Crime
Law
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:It is a commonplace occurrence today that computer programs, which arise from the area of research in artificial intelligence known as intelligent agents, function autonomously and competently; they work without human supervision, learn, and, while remaining just programmed entities, are capable of doing things that might not be anticipated by their creators or users. Societal norms and the legal system constrain people's interactions with other human beings, other legal persons, or animal entities. Discussing rights and responsibilities for programs tends to trigger thoughts of civil rights for robots, or taking them to trial for having committed a crime or something else similarly fanciful. But the legal problems created by the increasing use of artificial agents today are many and varied. One possible solution, which would require people to grant some legal standing to the programs themselves, would be to treat programs as legal agents of their principals, empowered by law to engage in all those transactions covered by the scope of their authority.
ISSN:0001-0782
1557-7317
DOI:10.1145/1787234.1787248