Artificial intelligence should be protected by human rights, Oxford mathematician argues

While robotics and AI research is taking massive strides forward, our social development hasn't really kept up with them. We may very well have sentient robots in a few decades, but is our society prepared to deal with that possibility? For starters, what role would robots play? Would they be considered as mindless servants, inferior slaves who (which?!) exist only to serve our needs? Would they be like animals, given some rights, but clearly not as many as humans?