Rights and responsibilities are a complex philosophical and legal issue under most circumstances, so it’s useful to be clear about what we are trying to focus on this month.
Please note: I am not a lawyer; I am a citizen, publisher, and philosopher seeking a pragmatic way of discussing these complex issues. This month’s focus is primarily on #1 and somewhat on #2 below.
We divide AGI rights into four buckets:
1) Human Rights re: AGI, which are rights for AGI users, makers, organizations, including corporate, for all of humanity, and for the Earth
2) Human Responsibilities re: AGI, which are the human responsibilities to each other, to the Earth, and to AGI entailed by Human Rights re: AGI and by AGI Rights and Responsibilities below
3) AGI Rights, which are rights acknowledged for AGI entities themselves
4) AGI Responsibilities, which are the AGI responsibilities to each other, to humanity, and to the Earth entailed by AGI Rights
A few notes:
Organizations, including corporate, may have rights in addition to, or different from, the rights acknowledged by corporate rights of personhood specified in U.S. law.
Non-users and the Earth may have Rights re: AGI by virtue of general human rights, e.g. see the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Sustainable Development Goals, and increasingly and specifically, Nature’s Rights and the Rights of Nature.
In AGI Rights, we say “acknowledged” because, in general, we believe many rights pre-exist the law itself even when legally “granted.”
Acknowledged “by whom” is left an open question because this will be at the center of an upcoming debate that may last centuries.
Future “rights” issues of AGI Ethics News will focus on these four buckets.
We seek commentary on our rubric.
K.B. Miller, publisher
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K.B Miller is a lifelong publisher and writer with a degree in Logic and Philosophy of Science. He served on the Smithsonian National Board, where he co-founded the Education Committee; is Chair Emeritus, Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; and was principal investigator on a two-year AI research project for the U.S. Department of Defense.