The EU Is Trying to Decide Whether to Grant Robots Personhood

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. In 2015, an A.I.-powered Twitter bot did something a little out there--avant-garde one might say. It tweeted, "I seriously want to kill people," and mentioned a fashion event in Amsterdam. Dutch police questioned the owner of the bot over the death threat, claiming he was legally responsible for its actions, because it was in his name and composed tweets based on his own Twitter account. It's not clear whether tweeting "I seriously want to kill people" at a fashion event actually constitutes a crime--or even a crime against fashion--in the Netherlands.