The big idea: should we worry about sentient AI?

That, after all, is the history of humanity. We have a terrible record of inventing reasons to ignore the suffering of those whose oppression sustains our lifestyles. If future AI does become sentient, the humans who profit from it will rush to convince consumers that such a thing is impossible, that there is no reason to change the way they live.

Right now we are creating the conceptual vocabularies that our great-grandchildren will find ready-made. If we treat the idea of sentient AI as categorically absurd, they will be equipped to dismiss any troubling evidence of its emerging abilities.

Regina Rini teaches Philosophy at York University, Toronto.

The New Breed: How to Think About Robots by Kate Darling (Allen Lane, £20)

AI: Its Nature and Future by Margaret Boden (Oxford, £12.99)