At this moment, Canada is debating A.I. personhood. Why aren’t we (that is the U.S.) looking into this possibility? Are we less hip than Canada? Apparently so. A few years back, Canada did away with pennies. They stole our idea for monetary units and now they’ve outlawed the penny’s use- which was originally “one of ours”. Again, are we less forward thinking than Canada? Though, they have incorporated plastic into their dollar bills in an effort to make them harder to counterfeit. The American 100 and 20 dollar bill is recognized currency anywhere. Why aren’t we doing something like this to keep ne’er do wells from counterfeiting our beloved money. Perhaps, in Canada’s case, it’s because they will stick together solidly if throw into a hot dryer. A lady in Toronto did that and found 700 or 800 dollars in a pants pocket after the dry cycle and freaked out.
Unintended consequences I guess.
Surely A.I. would have used “machine learning” and studied this potential before embarking on the change, or A.I. might have put a “governor” on the heat controls in all dryers in Canada to prevent “stickage”.
So, clearly A.I. is not the answer; not yet at least.
Let’s take this thought a bit further. If A.I. can be considered a person, can they own Real Estate? Would they put up a fight when the condo association fees went up? Or when they painted their home grey (which is SO against the bylaws!). Would they call the cops when a neighbor had more than his 2.4 cars at his property- impinging upon someone else’s parking?
The ramifications are enough to give one pause.
I can easily see A.I. becoming the local police force. It would then be impossible to bribe your way out of a ticket with the box of Kryspy Kremes on the seat next to you, which that you’d just purchased, or explain that, “while what you did might be perceived as illegal, that that was not what I’d intended.”
And just try and get out of buying two tickets to the policeman’s ball, pleading no cash. There would be a way to look up your withdrawals and recent purchases in real time, so the “officer” would know that you were lying.
“Excuse me Citizen, but I happen to know that you should still have enough for 2 tickets in your wallet. But if you continue to protest, I am empowered to take Visa, Amex and Discover cards, all of which are in your wallet at this moment.”
If any of that happens, I think that we’d be getting off cheap if all we had to buy were a few tickets to some dreary fundraiser.