Robot’s rights may need to be regulated, says PM Joseph Muscat

In the future, machines might not only be able to learn but also to define themselves, and for this reason, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat believes that we could soon be discussing the rights of robots.

Speaking at the Malta Innovation Summit, Muscat doubled down on his speech in front of the General Assembly of the United Nations where he said that after becoming the ‘Blockchain Island’, A.I. would be next for Malta. This tied into his emphasis on the importance of Malta to continue being innovative.

“Once we’ve achieved our blockchain goal, we’re now setting our aim towards AI. We’re getting into the discussion about the future of work, meaning what type of productivity will the world be engaged in over the next few decades.”

The Prime Minister also described Maltese culture as being innovative in and of itself, explaining how Malta had transformed itself from a fortress economy, to a tourism and manufacturing economy, and presently to a focus on iGaming,

company was never intended for Joseph Muscat.” Based on that, Azzopardi said, he could not exclude that the company did not belong to the Prime Minister.

Furthermore, if Egrant was such a sore point for Muscat, Azzopardi questioned, then why did he retain Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri in their respective roles after they opened their own secret companies. “It must be the case therefore that Joseph Muscat is receiving something from the secret companies, since he keeps defending them,” Azzopardi said.

The PN MP said that contrary to what the government was trying to spin, nobody was doubting the magistrate’s conclusions or his integrity; but the fact remained that the magistrate could not say to whom it belongs – “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”, Azzopardi said.

PL MP Edward Zammit Lewis, who was the other guest on Indepth in its new debate format, on his part said that Azzopardi and the PN were in a state of “total confusion”.

He said that instead of coming onto the programme to discuss a better future for the country, he has instead ended up trying to be Sherlock Holmes, except that while Sherlock Holmes solved cases, “Jason Azzopardi asks more questions than he finds solutions”.

Zammit Lewis quoted a passage from the conclusions of the Egrant inquiry, which remains the only segment of the inquiry available to the public, saying how Harbinson Forensics wrote that they “have not seen any documents revealing that the Ultimate Beneficiary Owner of Egrant was anyone other than Brian Tonna”.

Addressing Azzopardi, he said that notwithstanding this passage in the conclusions, him and the PN still insist on saying that they do not know to whom Egrant belongs. “It is clear whom it belongs to, so why are you continuing to propagate this narrative,” the PL MP asked.

Joseph Muscat earlier this week said that Simon Busuttil and those who believe that Egrant belongs to the Prime Minister are living in a “parallel universe”. Asked whether, considering that the PN had lost an election by a historical margin in 2017, the PM’s claims ring true, Azzopardi said that an electoral victory did not change what was wrong and what was right.

Indeed, Azzopardi claimed, there has to be something in it for Muscat since he kept Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi by his side. The PN MP said that all people had to do was remember how Muscat had removed Anglu Farrugia for a couple of words directed at a magistrate.

“How much Joseph Muscat’s standards have changed,” Azzopardi said.