Europe is prepping for a world where robots need rights

With every new innovation in the artificial intelligence space, it becomes even more tempting to imagine a near future filled with humanoid robots ready and willing to accomplish any task. After all, that's what we've been promised by sci-fi movies and books for years.

But once our future artificially intelligent robot overlords assistants are ingrained in society and inevitably tangled up in the stickier aspects of the human experience, what legal rights are they due, if any?

It's a central question at speculative panels for futurists — but a proposal approved by the European Parliament's Legal Affairs committee today will actually bring the debate to legislative bodies, according to CNN.

The proposal was spurred by an extensive report on robotics and the law, brought to the committee of Legal Affairs by Luxembourg MEP Mady Delvaux. After being approved, it will be considered by the European Commission.

The report claims we're on the verge of AI breakthroughs "poised to unleash a new industrial revolution, which is likely to leave no stratum of society untouched." It envisions just about every conceivable outcome of our coexistence with robots, from the immediate (human job losses via automation) to the more far fetched (AI surpassing human cognition and bending our frail mortal minds to its will).

"A growing number of areas of our daily lives are increasingly affected by robotics," said Delvaux. "To ensure that robots are and will remain in the service of humans, we urgently need to create a robust European legal framework."

Some highlights from the report:

• a call for the adoption of Asimov's Laws of robotics in programming and design (which stipulate that robots must never allow humans come to harm, must obey all orders from humans and must protect its own existence unless that would disobey the first two rules).

• a recommendation for kill switches to shut off defective robots in case of emergency (aka the machine uprising and revolution)

• a means for robots to always be identifiable to humans (sorry, no Replicants from Blade Runner here)

• compulsory robot insurance

• robot taxes in the event that they become members of the economy

• creating a "specific legal status" for robots

No matter what policies are actually passed as the proposal advances through the EU's higher channels, lawmakers have a clear, humans-first priority. The Terminator and The Matrix might be fun movies to watch (and, okay, iRobot isn't the worst thing in the world either), but no one wants those futures to become our own reality.