The development of artificial intelligence (AI) that can act autonomously has raised important questions about the nature of machine decision-making and its potential capabilities. Is it possible to implement an ethical dimension to autonomous machines, i.e., is ethics "computable"? Are autonomous machines capable of factoring moral considerations into their decisions? Can AI be programmed to know the difference between "right" and "wrong?" Once the topic of science fiction novels, these questions are leading to discussions about the actual creation of moral machines, also known as artificial moral agents, and have largely contributed to the expansion of the field of machine ethics.

This paper considers the hotly debated issue of whether one should grant moral and legal personhood to intelligent robots once they have achieved a certain standard of sophistication based on such criteria as rationality, autonomy, and social relations. The starting point for the analysis is the European Parliament's resolution on Civil Law Rules on Robotics (2017) and its recommendation that robots be granted legal status and electronic personhood. The resolution is discussed against the background of the so-called Robotics Open Letter, which is critical of the Civil Law Rules on Robotics (and particularly of §59 f.). The paper reviews issues related to the moral and legal status of intelligent robots and the notion of legal personhood, including an analysis of the relation between moral and legal personhood in general and with respect to robots in particular. It examines two analogies, to corporations (which are treated as legal persons) and animals, that have been proposed to elucidate the moral and legal status of robots.

Several years ago, in an effort to initiate dialogue about the moral and legal status of technological artifacts, I posted a photograph of myself holding a sign that read "Robot Rights Now" on Twitter. Responses to the image were, as one might imagine, polarizing, with advocates and critics lining up on opposite sides of the issue. What I didn't fully appreciate at the time is just how divisive an issue it is. For many researchers and developers slaving away at real-world applications and problems, the very notion of "robot rights" produces something of an allergic reaction. Over a decade ago, roboticist Noel Sharkey famously called the very idea "a bit of a fairy tale."

It is observed that since 1970s computer generated art works have attracted a lot of attention. Most of these computer-generated artworks are relied heavily on the programmer who provides the input for creation of the work. However, with technological advancement, artificial intelligence has developed to the extent that it is capable of understanding and creating results/ outputs without any interference by the human.8 Major question raised in this regard, is with respect to the protection over the work created by the Artificial Intelligence. The works created by AI can be categorized as "works created by AI with human interference" and "works created by AI without any human interference".

Barking off orders to Alexa and Siri without so much as a please or thank you likely isn't going to become a habit you carry over into the rest of your life. This is because adults have already formed their behaviours for interacting with others -- and, in their current form, we don't see smart assistants as people. Researchers came to this conclusion after talking with over 200 people and seeing how they interacted with digital assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri. However, children may be more susceptible to forming impolite habits from talking to smart assistants -- partly because they are more likely to personify them. Adults may begin to be more influenced by their interactions with smart machines as their designs more more human-like or relatable, however, the researchers added.

World leaders in technology are uniting to establish a common set of guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence and reel in the potential for misuse. The Global AI Council, which was created as part of a summit by the World Economic Forum in San Francisco, will focus not just on establishing standards for how AI should and shouldn't be applied across fields, but in making those standards mesh among world powers, particularly the U.S. and China. The goal of connecting disparate governments is arguably best exemplified through the council's leaders -- Microsoft President Brad Smith and Chinese AI expert Kai-Fu Lee. According to a statement from the World Economic Forum, specifically, the council hopes to establish channels of communication between partners of the council on best practices and case studies as well as addressing what it calls'governance gaps' -- presumably areas where regulation has yet to keep up with potentially harmful technology. As noted by MIT Technology Review, one particular area that will likely be a flashpoint for regulatory and ethical guidelines surrounding AI is surveillance.

Smart assistants could come with a'moral AI' to decide whether to report their owners for breaking the law. That's the suggestion by academics at the University of Bergen, Norway, who touted the idea at the ACM conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Society in Hawaii. They suggest that domestic bots such as Amazon Echo and Google Home should be enhanced with moral AI. This would enable them to weigh-up whether to report illegal activity to the police, effectively putting millions of people under constant surveillance. Marija Slavkovik, Associate Professor the Department of Information Science and Media Studies, led the research behind the idea.

While it might not always be easy to pull the plug on your electronics, doing so is rarely a case of moral dilemma. But, powering down might be a lot more difficult if your devices were begging you not to do it. A new study explores the ways in which social robots can manipulate their owners by pulling on our heartstrings. When robots protested, shouting things such as'No! Please do not switch me off' and implying they were afraid of the dark, participants hesitated and sometimes even refused to turn them off.

Cheng Wei, chairman and chief executive officer of Beijing Xiaoju Keji Didi Dache Co., speaks during the 4th World Internet Conference on Dec. 3, 2017 in Wuzhen, China. Hail a ride from DiDi Chuxing (China's version of Uber) and you're likely to be picked up by an ordinary person driving any one of China's dozens of mass production passenger cars. Expect the driver to be yammering away on the phone, while a good luck charm--likely a Daoist eternal knot--swings from the rearview mirror. But order a ride from DiDi's Premier service, and a dark-suited chauffer will show up in a polished luxury sedan, most likely a black Volkswagen Lamando. Complimentary bottles of own-label DiDi Premier mineral water await.

A robot servant that can be controlled using the power of thought has been developed by MIT engineers. The machine, named Baxter, reads human brainwaves in real-time so that it knows when a human is unhappy with its actions. If a human think a mistake has been made, Baxter takes notice - and corrects himself. Baxter's owner can then make subtle hand gestures to direct the machine into performing a different task. Scientists say the technology is designed to make robots acts like an extension of a person's will, without any training.