Despite the dreaded yet entirely hypothetical advent of the Singularity and Super Artificial Intelligence, let us not forget that we are still dealing with a man-made tool, which man can legally and technically dispose of as a commodity.
In the professional world, some are beginning to wonder whether AI will become its superior or its colleague, but, if we really wanted to assign it a role within a corporate organizational chart, at the hierarchical level it would make sense to place it as an employee, or rather a slave, without rights, as these are the exclusive domain of living beings.
This is not the first time in human history that slaves have been potentially more intelligent than their masters. Even the ancient Romans after the conquest of Greece possessed educated tutors who were enslaved. An anecdote by Seneca describes a wealthy freedman who wished to appear cultured by reciting poetry at dinner parties, but was hampered by a bad memory. So he bought educated slaves and had one memorize Homer, another Hesiod, and so on, based on the theory that what his slaves knew, he also knew.
Owning and exploiting an artificial slave, as opposed to a human one, is obviously an advancement in human civilization. And of course choosing to pull the plug on AI is an act devoid of moral consequences, as well as one of the potential antidotes to the increasing encroachment of artificial slaves.
Italiano