We probably won’t be faced with the prospect of artificial people this century. Probably. Time to think about these issues now, so we have just systems in place when we need them.

It’s just that every test we have for Personhood (when applied to a hypothetical AI) shows Forest and Bonibo chimps as being people, and even African Grey parrots as being thinking beings.

I live next to a halfway house for profoundly intellectually disabled people who happen to be human. They are people notwithstanding their inability to use symbols, or make use of language. The average forest chimp is smarter. So how come killing Chimps painlessly is mere destruction of property, and not some form of felony?

I emphatically do not advocate withdrawing human rights from the intellectually disabled, young children etc. Neither do I advocate treating Chimpanzees as having the same rights as adult humans.

But very basic Person (rather than Human) rights, yes. Life. Liberty. The pursuit of happiness. That will do as a start.

I don’t care what its DNA is, or even if it has DNA.

We can then move on to questions of legal competence.