Could You Turn Off Your AI? Some Say No
If you haven’t seen Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas from 1993, you’re missing a real tear-jerker. In the movie, Andrew Beckett, played by Tom Hanks, is a lawyer at a ‘powerful’ law firm in Philadelphia. Beckett is a gay man, in a committed relationship with his partner, Miguel Alvarez, played by Antonio Banderas. He is unable to keep his HIV status secret due to the inevitable health complications at that time. When this movie takes place, there wasn’t medication for AIDs or HIV, and the outlook wasn’t great for those who suffered.
As the movie progresses, Beckett loses his job, can’t have his partner in his darkest times of need, and must rely on only one lawyer to represent him as every other person he encounters treats him as less than human. While the movie may not be based on a single person’s true story, it is based on the true stories and experiences of gay men during this time who experienced discrimination on several levels.
Philadelphia, while not a story about robots, examines empathy and what rights people inherently have, even when outside the status quo. As we use more AI models and witness the birth of their physical presence in our world, we will need to examine what kinds of rights they deserve.
Will AI Inherently Deserve or Need Rights?
Remember that video of the robot ‘offing’ itself? Well, the crazy thing is, that didn’t happen. In case you missed it, the video is below. A robot performs menial tasks, moving a box from one side to the other. Suddenly, it collapses! Viewers took this to mean that the robot realized that this was going to be its life, forever- moving boxes from one place to another. And being a creature of intelligence, it decided that it wasn’t worth it.
Fortunately, that’s not what happened. The robot had a malfunction and is back to working conditions now. In fact, the researchers who built that robot have said that it would be impossible for it to have decided to pull its own plug.
Does that mean that all robots wouldn’t be able to do so?
Right off the bat, it may be tempting to say that these tools will not deserve or require any rights. They’re manufactured. They can’t feel. It’s a fancy calculator. You wouldn’t not use your calculator just because it’s a Saturday and your usual working hours are between 9 am and 5 pm, Monday through Friday, right? You can’t push a calculator over the edge, right?
As the intelligence in our machines improves, these are questions we’ll need to start asking ourselves.
The Evolution of Rights for Non-Humans
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