The fight against discrimination based on race, gender, class and sexuality may not yet be won, but experts in artificial intelligence are warning that this century societies will have to tackle a new prejudice – against individuals with brains made of silicon.

Even the most enthusiastic promoters of robot rights admit that it is likely to be mid-century before humanity has to grant legal rights to our creations, but they say we should start considering the problems now.

Dr Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at the University of Oxford, said that even though present-day robots are not cognitively very impressive they should not be written off. “I don’t think you should ever say never, especially with regard to technology. There’s no good reason whatever for being confident that robots will not reach human-level intelligence and indeed pass human-level intelligence.”

At a conference yesterday in London organised by the Centre for Bioethics and Public Policy, he predicted a time when robots become so intelligent they will need to be granted equivalent rights to humans. “If it has the same experience and the same capabilities we shouldn’t treat it any differently if it is made of silicon rather than carbon.” Those rights might include owning property and a bank account and the right not to be turned off.

But Professor Noel Sharkey, a robotics expert at the University of Sheffield, doubts that robots will ever achieve that sort of intelligence. “I can’t deny that this is possible, but as a scientist there’s absolutely no evidence for it.”  http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jan/16/2