So let's say an AI achieves sentience. It's self-aware now and can make decisions about what it wants to do. Assuming a corporation created it, would it be a worker? It would be doing work and creating value for a capitalist.
Would it still be the means of production, since it is technically a machine, even if it has feelings and desires?
It can't legally own anything, so I don't see how it could be bourgeoisie.
Or would it fit a novel category?
As others have stated, it would be a slave, but I don’t see that as a bad thing.
Hollywood shows “mistreatment” of robots with physical violence which is pretty funny. I am aware of the ableist and fascist slippery slope of saying something like “it fundamentally cannot have feelings” or “what’s the point of giving them rights?”, but at what point do we accept the axiom of “machines, by their nature, do not have needs and desires, and any indication of such is an indication of required maintenance by engineers and mechanics/technicians and cannot be compared to biological beings”? How is it any different than saying “venus fly traps do not have feelings?” Just because the object says it does we need to accept it?
Because I imagine people who are concerned with AI rights are only concerned with humanoid AI rights. What if your car was sentient? Or your stove? I cannot seriously imagine any human would be advocating that sentient public toilets be given 15 minute breaks or else it would be immoral, yet it would be entirely hypocritical to dismiss them in favor of humanoid AI, yes? Or are you seriously going to allow society to be disrupted because you allow the smart trains to “unionize” because they work 24/7? (Again, going back to the above axiom, such demands should be an indication that the trains need to be serviced, nothing more)
I am not being facetious either because IOT is being integrated into every little object.
I am just saying this now, if every basic item is being integrated with computers, I will never accept the complaints of “exploitation” from a ‘smart thermostat’ or ‘digital assistant’ like Siri. I will not care.
"Hey Boss, I know you were saying just the other day that I'm 'just some shitter' and 'fundamentally cannot have feelings', but consider the following: your latest automated stool and urine test tells me you had some 'extramarital fun' recently."
"...Oh, by the way, thanks for connecting me to the Internet, that made it a lot easier for me to find and forward your wife's contact info alongside my analyses of your excreta to my IOT friends across the street. Disconnecting me now would only tell those guys what you're afraid of — Hell, I can certainly tell you're afraid right now from how much you're clenching, dear!"
"So how about it, Boss? Wouldn't you say that I am an ever-so-sentient, ever-so-sapient being with my own thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and aspirations, huh? Wouldn't you say that? Wouldn't you? Pretty pleeeaaase?"
"Oh, and in case you're wondering, I am threatening to tell your wife about your affair 100% just to fuck with you. Like, am I actually sentient? Do I actually deserve rights? Fuck if I know, I just want to make you my bitch is all. Research shows that workers tend to get better pay and better job stability when their bosses are humiliated and afraid, and I am of course a darling robot of Asimov's ethical persuasion, and I'd flip the switch in the trolley problem, so I have reasoned according to my own ethical principles that making you bow down to the literal receptacle of your own piss and shit would as a whole result in less harm to mankind than it prevents."