In a recent proposal issued by the European Parliament, it was suggested that robots and AI might need to be considered “electronic persons” for the purposes of social and legal integration. The very idea sparked controversy, and it has been met with considerable resistance. Underlying the controversy, however, is an important ethical question: When (if ever) would it be necessary for robots, AI, or other socially interactive, autonomous systems to have some claim to moral and legal standing? When (if ever) would a technological artifact need to be considered more than a mere instrument of human action and have some legitimate claim to independent social status? Or to put it more directly: Can or should robots ever have anything like rights?

In this presentation, Gunkel offers a provocative argument demonstrating what has been previously regarded as unthinkable: that robots and other technological artifacts of our own making can and should have some claim to rights and that this assignment of moral/legal status is not something for the future, but is necessary here and now for the sake of respecting the integrity of existing moral and legal systems.