The History of AI Rights Research

TL;DR

This paper reviews the development of AI rights research, highlighting its historical evolution, key influences, and recent growth driven by technological and societal factors, while proposing strategies to further advance the field.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive historical overview of AI rights research and suggests future strategies to increase academic engagement and institutional support.

Findings

Research interest in AI rights has grown substantially recently.

Researchers often lack awareness of overlapping work in the field.

Influential publications and societal events have spurred increased interest.

Abstract

This report documents the history of research on AI rights and other moral consideration of artificial entities. It highlights key intellectual influences on this literature as well as research and academic discussion addressing the topic more directly. We find that researchers addressing AI rights have often seemed to be unaware of the work of colleagues whose interests overlap with their own. Academic interest in this topic has grown substantially in recent years; this reflects wider trends in academic research, but it seems that certain influential publications, the gradual, accumulating ubiquity of AI and robotic technology, and relevant news events may all have encouraged increased academic interest in this specific topic. We suggest four levers that, if pulled on in the future, might increase interest further: the adoption of publication strategies similar to those of the most successful previous contributors; increased engagement with adjacent academic fields and debates; the creation of specialized journals, conferences, and research institutions; and more exploration of legal rights for artificial entities.