Europe warned granting robots legal status would breach human rights

A Tanscorp UU smart robot on show at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas
A Tanscorp UU smart robot on show at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Credit: Getty

Some of the world's leading robotics and artificial intelligence experts are calling on the European Union to rethink plans to grant robots legal status because it could breach humans rights law.

A group of 140 academics spanning 40 countries, including Nathalie Nevejans of Artois University in France, an expert in ethics in robotics at the European Parliament, along with Noel Sharkey, Emeritus Professor of the AI and robotics at the University of Sheffield, signed a letter to the European Commission that warned granting robots similar rights to humans was “inappropriate” and “non-sensical” from an ethical and legal perspective.

The European Parliament is considering offering robots “electronic...

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