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42 Hum. Rts. Q. 573 (2020)
Speculative Human Rights: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of the Human

handle is hein.journals/hurq42 and id is 577 raw text is: HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY Speculative Human Rights: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of the Human James Dawes ABSTRACT This essay takes seriously the claims of many experts in artificial intelligence that AGI (artificial general intelligence) could emerge as early as 2040. Some of the questions raised by AGI include: Does human-like intelligence entail consciousness, and does consciousness entail rights? Will the rise of AGI enhance or endanger human life? If the former, are there certain perceived enhancements that run counter to notions of human rights? If the latter, what are our collective duties, right now, to future generations? How can a human rights framework help us to negotiate these questions? I. INTRODUCTION What will it mean for human rights when artificial intelligence transcends the human? Before I answer that question, I should explain why I think that it is an important one. On the one hand, our culture is saturated with anxiety about the hurtling speed of technological development. Public figures as different as Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, and Elon Musk have all warned that we are on the verge of developing Al so complicated that we will neither be able to understand it nor control it. As Hawking James Dawes, professor at Macalester College, is the author of The Novel of Human Rights (Harvard, 2018), Evil Men (Harvard, 201 3), That the World May Know: Bearing Witness to Atrocity (Harvard, 2007), and The Language of War (Harvard, 2002). Human Rights Quarterly 42 (2020) 573-593 © 2020 by Johns Hopkins University Press