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Europe's Robots To Become 'Electronic Persons' Under Draft Plan (yahoo.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via Yahoo News: Under the European Union's new draft plan, Europe's growing army of robot workers could be classed as "electronic persons," with their owners liable to paying social security for them. Robots are only becoming more prevalent in the workplace. They're already taking on tasks such as personal care or surgery, and their population is only expected to rise as their abilities are expanded with the increased development of new technologies. A draft European Parliament motion suggests that their growing intelligence, pervasiveness and autonomy requires rethinking everything from taxation to legal liability. The draft motion called on the European Commission to consider "that at least the most sophisticated autonomous robots could be established as having the status of electronic persons with specific rights and obligations." It also suggested the creation of a register for smart autonomous robots, which would link each one to funds established to cover its legal liabilities. Patrick Schwarzkopf, managing director of the VDMA's robotic and automation department, said: "That we would create a legal framework with electronic persons -- that's something that could happen in 50 years but not in 10 years. We think it would be very bureaucratic and would stunt the development of robotics," he told reporters. The report added that the robotics and artificial intelligence may result in a large part of the work now done by humans being taken over by robots, raising concerns about the future of employment and the viability of social security systems. The draft motion also said organizations should have to declare savings they made in social security contributions by using robotics instead of people, for tax purposes.
Get out while you can. Even if all the dire predictions of the results are true, it's going to get even worse if you stay.
Is it April the first already?
It appears that european leaders now have discovered that robots don't pay income taxes and want to fix it. Well, that's right, but right now robots are a very good way you can avoid having to resort to do your production in china or something, because robots are as cheap in europe as they are in china. Well, good that the EU is changing it, as then the robot fabs will be built in china as well! Good job EU!
Is a bulldozer a robot? What about an autonomous bulldozer? How many people did it replace? A bulldozer can do the work of 100 men with shovels but a much much smaller number of men if they also have a bulldozer. The only thing this would do would have companies skirting the law by redefining or crippling their products: That computer that fill drinks isn't a robot. That computer that folds clothes isn't a robot because it's been crippled to only fold clothes. etc. etc.
Humanoid robots are likely always going to be a novelty. For most tasks, a non-humanoid version works better. Even for a general purpose robot, the humanoid form is probably not optimal.
... voting Brexit is a thing.
[sigh]
Physicists get Hadrons!
Seems clear as day to me: People are getting stupider, not smarter. We don't have real artificial intelligence yet, and won't for quite some time to come, if ever, and by the way my definition of real AI is: Passes the Turing Test with flying colors, every single time. None of this 'expert system' bullshit, no 'clever learning algorithms', you sit down with it and have a totally random conversation and it's at least as good as your average human being, complete with a full range of emotions and a real sense of humor, including the abilty to comprehend irony and sarcasm. Otherwise: It's just another tool, property, and is to be treated as such.
I swear, I just want to start punching people in the head whenever they start talking about the crap we have now as 'artificial intelligence'.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
This does raise another issue, with governments all over the world cutting corporate tax, at the same time the exact same companies are replacing people with robots with no income tax. You have to wonder how governments are going to fill this massive hole in their budget. I suspect governments will have to do as the EU and create some weird laws ie electronic persons so they can enforce a new type of income tax on the robots and their owners. I think in the next 50 years there are going to be some pretty big social problems with 20-40% of the worlds population having (worse in affluent nations) having nothing to do thanks to automation. Not everyone can be a lawyer or engineer and even if you did fix that education problem there wont be enough projects to employ them all. You will end up with government agencies putting an income tax on robots and using that money to pay the unemployed a survival income.
Not at all, in fact, quite astute. Government workers are protecting their jobs.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
No wonder intelligent people in the UK want the hell out.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Honestly, the EU response to Muslim migration has been more mellow and accepting than any other culture of any significant size would have been in the history of the world. If millions of European christians began migrating to a middle eastern country and building churches and out breeding the local populace there would be blood in the streets. They don't hate you. Obviously they love you enough to sacrifice everything to include you.