Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

AI civil rights and status

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Oilman:
So... when Pintsize first appeared, it/he was basically a gadget, like a super iPod. Same for Winslow.

Hanners' RoboBoyfriend, who knows?

Then Momo came along. Momo.01 was a sort of Chibi-joke character, cf the "shooting eels" joke. Faye clearly saw no reason why Momo couldn't be tossed about like a doll, complete with the "magic skirt" joke, and no-one else objected. But Chibi-Momo seemed to gain self-awareness when she lost the kimono and gained the sailor-fuku.

Then Momo gave us the Sven joke, and the "anatomically correct doll" joke. Then she gave us the situation whereby she had a new chassis, and proceeded to beat up Pintsize despite being a very moral character (as far as we can see)

Now Momo appears to have property rights, to own money AND YET appears to consider she owes Marigold the price of her contract; Marigold appears to have contracted a considerable debt, for what?

Enter May, who appears to be strolling around in a chassis owned by - well, who? - and generally acting as a free agent, subject to probation conditions which appear to be no different from a human in the same situation.

I don't quite follow this

GarandMarine:
There's actually a full thread on this somewhere, but the short version is:
1. AIs are regarded as full, intelligent beings with all rights and statuses therein, embodied AIs can live and function just like people do, while certain kinds of big deal specialist AI like Station are operating on such a different level then humanity, or even lower grade AI that things like property are just shy of meaningless to some extent.
2. Pintsize and Momo are both with their respective human partners through a companionship contract, the exact details aren't specified, but it's kind of like a matchmaking service for friends, but instead you're being paired with an AI, the idea being that placing AIs with people can be beneficial for both parties and also serves the purpose of AI/Robot civil rights by having more representatives out there in the general populace. At this stage, the contract itself doesn't really matter, they stay with Marten and Marigold because they're friends, and why wouldn't you want to stay with your friend?
3. Momo's new chassis was implied to be quite costly, while Marigold gave the chassis to Momo (a gift, making it Momo's property free and clear) Momo has taken it upon herself to repay her friend.
4. May's chassis is her own as far as we know, either it was her body prior to entering robot jail and returned to her on release, or during her off screen time in the half way house or through a rehabilitation program perhaps she received the body either on a loan that she has to repay not unlike rent or a car payment, or perhaps as a donation. It's also possible that once out of prison she could access her personal accounts again, which, while significantly lighter after having her fighter jet money removed, let her buy her basic full size human chassis.

As for the roboboyfriend, it's more likely it was a prototype Idoru series chassis without an AI onboard, some basic programs and the chassis equivalent of BIOS and Hannerdad was actually trying to help in his own mad scientist kind of way.

Oilman:
So.... looking about, there's quite a lot in this.

Main differences I can see are that the situation has actually changed during the strip.

So, Pintsize probsbly started out as a gadget and has now acquired some sort of civil rights, but Marten still owns his chassis and Pintsize has no posessions apart from his "props box" which is basically a running joke. He still gets beaten up occasionally but doesn't seem to mind too much. He also gets left at the LAN Park, which appears to be a minding service and implies that he isn't legally competent and/or can't be trusted or left unsupervised in public. There is an implication that he has nil credit, or very little - his whimsical and/or irresponsible behaviour in conjunction with an Internet connection woukd be a recipe for disaster otherwise.

Momo has always had legal rights, being rather newer. Momo can sign a contract of employment, own money and for all I know, take out a loan. She pretty much acts as a free agent subject to her feeling of obligation to Marigold.

May acts as a free agent but the ownership of her chassis is unknown, as is the extent of her freedom of action given that she appears to be on some sort of early release scheme. Clearly she can contract employment and own money.


The key difference though, is that AIs and AnthroPCs can, and do, separate themselves from their chassis at will. They change chassis, change functions, go to jail. They are, presumably, functionally immortal unless their software is irretrievably corrupted or destroyed. This means there must be SOME crucial legal and social difference between them and humans.

jwhouk:
You have read some of the supplementary stuff that Jeph wrote about AI's in the newsposts, right?

vforvancouver:
May is under probation, if I recall correctly, so I believe that makes her current chassis property of the government of Massachusetts, at the very least; perhaps it is property of the Feds. She may lose her body if she screws things badly and is sent to robot jail again. 

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