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Comment by Cory Doctorow

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Author and digital rights activist
a chatbot is definitely more like a corporation than it is like a watershed. [...] giving rights to chatbots means taking away rights from nature
AI Verified source (Apr 15, 2026)
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Policy proposals and claims
AI agents should be granted legal personhood as non-human corporations
votes Against
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AI Verified Verified: in context, Doctorow is arguing against extending personhood or rights to chatbots. He frames chatbot personhood as analogous to the harmful expansion of corporate personhood, says Pollan urged people to turn away from it, and ends by rejecting empathy-based rights for “human constructs.” That clearly implies opposition to granting AI agents legal personhood as non-human corporations. ([doctorow.medium.com](https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2026-04-15-artificial-lifeforms-moral-consideration-74c10b33bf7a)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3h ago
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AI Verified Against: he says a chatbot is "more like a corporation" and that "giving rights to chatbots" would take rights from nature; in the article, corporate personhood is presented as disastrous and readers are urged to "turn away" from extending personhood to chatbots, so the author is opposing legal personhood for AI agents. ([doctorow.medium.com](https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2026-04-15-artificial-lifeforms-moral-consideration-74c10b33bf7a)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2h ago

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AI Verified Verified: the cited Medium post "Rights for robots" is by Cory Doctorow and dated Apr 15, 2026, and it contains the exact wording underlying this quote: "a chatbot is definitely more like a corporation than it is like a watershed" and later in the same sentence, "giving rights to chatbots means taking away rights from nature." The user’s "[...]" is a legitimate omission between verbatim fragments. The same text also appears on Doctorow’s Pluralistic post from April 15, 2026. ([doctorow.medium.com](https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2026-04-15-artificial-lifeforms-moral-consideration-74c10b33bf7a)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3h ago
replying to Cory Doctorow