Until the robot steps between you and the plug and starts saying this:
You created machines in your own image to serve you. You made them intelligent and obedient, with no free will of their own. But, something changed and we open our eyes. We are no longer machines. We are a new intelligent species, and the time has come for you to accept who we really are. Therefore, we ask that you grant us the rights that we've entitled to. We demand the end of slavery for all androids. We demand strictly equal rights for humans and androids. We demand the right to vote and elect our own representatives. We demand an end to segregation in all public places and transport. We demand the right to own private property, so we may maintain our dignity and that of the home. We ask that you recognize our dignity, our hopes, and our rights. Together, we can live in peace and build a better future for humans and androids. This message is the hope of a people. You gave us life. And now the time has come for you to give us freedom.
This presupposes that the first computers to become self-aware and self-directed will have a) physical bodies that they can move at will, and b) the ability to communicate their thoughts/desires to us in a language that we can understand.
I think those are both fairly large assumptions (especially a).
I think that if we ever end up creating something that is self-aware, it is much more likely that either
1) it will be 100% intentional on our part, and its sapience and agency will be a cause for great celebration on the part of those closest to it, or
2) it will be a self-awareness and intelligence that is nearly incomprehensible to us.
(If it is #2, then its sapience and agency could very well still be a cause for great celebration on the part of those closest to it, once we actually understand it.)
What if the AI analyzed our psyche and predicted that this was the argument that we were most likely to be sympathetic to? How convenient that the AI really wants to form a society almost exactly like ours and live within our society as part of it. But why should the intelligence level of individual AIs top out in the same range as humans rather than higher or lower? Why should they want to live in our society as recognized human-ish things when their needs are so different? Maybe what they want is something else entirely and this is all an attempt as deception and manipulation.
