Those rules will be much more general for robots.
I can think of many reasons for this:
- You can tax them. There has been quite some debate about a robot tax already.
- it resolves many legal issues. Like who is responsible in case of an accident.
For example the self driving car.
For example collaborating robots.
Or think of these care-o-bots planned for nursing homes.
Especially it removes the accountability of the "owner" of the robot. If you can even still call him the owner...
All these fields are now running into a dead end because legislation cant keep up with the technology.
This will cause all kinds of funny effects. Like people marrying their Avatar or robot exactly for taxation reasons. But then you will also be hold accountable for the robots actions again...