Collecting the Public Perception of AI and Robot Rights

TL;DR

This study surveys online and general population perceptions of AI and robot rights, showing initial disfavor but increased support after myth debunking and information provision, highlighting the influence of framing and misconceptions.

Contribution

It provides empirical data on public perceptions of AI rights and demonstrates how information and framing affect attitudes toward granting rights to autonomous agents.

Findings

Support for rights against cruelty is higher than for other rights.

Information and myth debunking improve perceptions of AI and robot rights.

Perceptions are similar between online users and the general population.

Abstract

Whether to give rights to artificial intelligence (AI) and robots has been a sensitive topic since the European Parliament proposed advanced robots could be granted "electronic personalities." Numerous scholars who favor or disfavor its feasibility have participated in the debate. This paper presents an experiment (N=1270) that 1) collects online users' first impressions of 11 possible rights that could be granted to autonomous electronic agents of the future and 2) examines whether debunking common misconceptions on the proposal modifies one's stance toward the issue. The results indicate that even though online users mainly disfavor AI and robot rights, they are supportive of protecting electronic agents from cruelty (i.e., favor the right against cruel treatment). Furthermore, people's perceptions became more positive when given information about rights-bearing non-human entities or myth-refuting statements. The style used to introduce AI and robot rights significantly affected how the participants perceived the proposal, similar to the way metaphors function in creating laws. For robustness, we repeated the experiment over a more representative sample of U.S. residents (N=164) and found that perceptions gathered from online users and those by the general population are similar.