--- title: Ray Kurzweil on Robots and Rights description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4023496/ray-kurzweil-will-robots-need-rights/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-11T17:38:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:08:42.857Z og:title: Ray Kurzweil: Robots Will Demand Rights—And We'll Grant Them og:description: It’s a question of morality og:url: https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4023496/ray-kurzweil-will-robots-need-rights/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9feb614968227ce/698862fa8e060183d2462462/question-everything-robot-rights-ray-kurzweil.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Ray Kurzweil: Robots Will Demand Rights—And We'll Grant Them og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ray Kurzweil: Robots Will Demand Rights—And We'll Grant Them twitter:description: It’s a question of morality twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9feb614968227ce/698862fa8e060183d2462462/question-everything-robot-rights-ray-kurzweil.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 11, 2015 # Robots Will Demand Rights—And We'll Grant Them by Ray Kurzweil  NEW YORK, NY - JULY 10: Actor Haley Joel Osment discusses his new series "The Spoils Before Dying" at AOL Studios In New York on July 10, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Adela Loconte/WireImage) NEW YORK, NY - JULY 10: Actor Haley Joel Osment discusses his new series "The Spoils Before Dying" at AOL Studios In New York on July 10, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Adela Loconte/WireImage)Getty Images; Photo Illustration by Mia Tramz for TIME There is no way to prove that one entity is conscious and another is not. Virtual characters can claim to be, but that does not convince us that they are. Some scientists say therefore that consciousness is an illusion. I would argue against that, however, because our entire moral system is based on it. If morality and rights are based on consciousness, and if consciousness is not a scientifically testable proposition, then we have to conclude that there is a proper role for philosophy, which is the study of important matters that cannot be resolved through scientific experimentation alone. Indeed, the idea of rights may be philosophy’s fundamental issue. If an AI can convince us that it is at human levels in its responses, and if we are convinced that it is experiencing the subjective states that it claims, then we will accept that it is capable of experiencing suffering and joy. At that point AIs will demand rights, and because of our ability to empathize, we will be inclined to grant them. _Kurzweil is an inventor and computer scientist_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4023496/ray-kurzweil-will-robots-need-rights/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4023496/ray-kurzweil-will-robots-need-rights/"},"headline":"Ray Kurzweil: Robots Will Demand Rights—And We'll Grant Them","datePublished":"2015-09-11T17:38:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:08:42.857Z","description":"It's a question of morality","url":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4023496/ray-kurzweil-will-robots-need-rights/","keywords":["Question Everything"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9feb614968227ce/698862fa8e060183d2462462/question-everything-robot-rights-ray-kurzweil.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9feb614968227ce/698862fa8e060183d2462462/question-everything-robot-rights-ray-kurzweil.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4023496/ray-kurzweil-will-robots-need-rights/","name":"Ray Kurzweil: Robots Will Demand Rights—And We'll Grant Them"}}]}] ```