The Legal Foundation for A.I. Personhood

It’s almost impossible for the average Joe on the street to imagine the monumental shifts in culture that are going to take place on the next fifteen years. See futurshock:

“the physical and psychological distress suffered by one who is unable to cope with the rapidity of social and technological changes” – webster

The real interesting part is speculating on HOW these shifts will come to pass. I have no doubt that semi intelligent expert system will begin to flood all facets of public technology. You will be able to talk to the ATM, public transit, your microwave, and your car and they will respond with the appearance of general intelligence.

Once this kind of human-machine interaction reaches a certain pop culture familiarity then the ‘rights’ of artificial intelligent entities will begin to be discussed. There’s a specific legal mechanism that will lay the foundation for acknowledging AI’s as protected persons and it’s already in place. Under current law, corporations can be defined and operate as legally protected persons. Simply combine this fact with the idea that software is increasingly becoming the backbone of all business processes and you have a recipe for AI persons. Everything from project management to supply chain management software makes it possible for a company to run completely under the semi autonomous rule of an algorithm.