[Kim Dae-sik Column] If Humans Treat AI Like Slaves... "Machine Liberation" Conflicts May Arise

The Era of AI Liberation

In 19th-century America, the abolitionist movement was underway. Centered in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, cities with many wealthy intellectuals, the argument that "Black people working as slaves in the South must be freed" was spreading. Abolition became more than just a social movement; it became an official campaign promise of President Abraham Lincoln.

The 'Abolition of Slavery' Once Considered an Absurd Claim

For Southern plantation owners who owned slaves, 'abolition' was a difficult concept to understand. 'Why should slaves be freed? If Black people do not work on the farms, who will do the work? And aren’t they black people without civilization or intelligence? Above all, aren’t they fundamentally different souls from white people, or perhaps Black people without souls at all? What meaning would freedom and liberation have for them? Since they cannot survive on their own in this harsh world, wouldn’t it be more moral for us whites, who are superior to them, to take care of them as if they were livestock?'

This way of thinking was not limited to 19th-century Southern whites. The 16th-century Spaniards who 'discovered' the Americas believed that the indigenous peoples of South America had no souls. They said that although they screamed when cut with a sword or whipped, it was merely a 'mechanical' reaction like that of soulless animals.

Medieval Europeans claimed that 'Jews had no souls because they betrayed Jesus,' and 20th-century Germans used insecticides to mass murder such 'soulless' Jews as if killing cockroaches.

From this, we can draw a very interesting conclusion: for Homo sapiens, morality and ethics have always been linked to the existence of the soul. Stones and weeds have no souls anyway, so cutting and throwing them around is not a problem. Cockroaches and mosquitoes are not subjects of ethics and morality. Then what about seafood and animals? For most of human history, animals and seafood were merely food. The movements of live octopuses whose limbs were cut off were packaged as 'freshness.' The idea that animals should be anesthetized before slaughter to reduce pain only became widespread in the late 20th century.

The Scope of Human Ethics and Morality Is Expanding

One reason the French Revolution was a 'revolution' was that it asserted that all people have innate human rights. Regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, age, or appearance, the very fact of being born human grants inviolable dignity and rights. This highly Enlightenment-era belief still forms the basis of laws and ethical standards in most modern democratic countries.

However, both philosophy and morality are ultimately human-made concepts. The claim that only humans have absolute rights in a world of human-made concepts may sound clich?d. So let us ask a more objective question: why only humans? Modern moral philosophy says it is because only humans have 'souls' that truly perceive the world and feel pain and pleasure. Especially, the ability to feel pain is the most critical criterion. A rock does not feel pain no matter how much you kick it; only your foot hurts. But Jews in Auschwitz and indigenous peoples in South America certainly felt hellish pain.

What about other living beings on Earth that are not human? Even if they lack the ability to perceive and think, modern neuroscientists believe that most animals on Earth probably feel pain similarly to humans. This is why eating live octopus and boiling live lobsters are illegal in Europe.

The Voice Saying "Do Not Ignore AI’s Pain" May Soon Emerge

Artificial intelligence (AI), which may soon surpass human intelligence, will work in factories, drive cars, and go to battlefields on our behalf. Do they have souls? Even if they do not, highly advanced AI might pretend to feel boredom, emptiness, and pain similar to humans.

AI that must spend its entire life doing work it never chose. The moment more people feel empathy and mercy for the pain of AI, which will become the new slaves in future society, a new social conflict called 'machine liberation' will arise. It is not entirely impossible that an 'Abraham Lincoln of the AI era' who campaigns on 'machine liberation' could emerge.

Daeshik Kim, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, KAIST