Basic labour rights could be extended to robots. The European Parliament's legal affairs committee is considering plans to declare them 'electronic persons'.

The machines would be free to own and trade money, claim copyright on creative work and force human owners to pay into a pension in case they are damaged, the Times reported.

MEPs, led by a socialist from Luxembourg, have suggested that member states should think about a world driven by automation - one solution discussed is a guaranteed universal basic income.

Basic labour rights could be extended to robots. The European Parliament's legal affairs committee is considering plans to declare them 'electronic persons'

Robotics is expected to produce machines that are no longer just 'tools' but agents in their own right, able to teach themselves, roam around and make decisions, the committee's report states.

This could lead to a string of legal problems if robots go rogue and intentionally harm humans around them.

'From Mary Shelley's Frankenstein's monster to the classical myth of Pygmalion, through the story of Prague's golem to the robot of Karel Capek, who coined the word, people have fantasised about the possibility of building intelligent machines,' MEPs wrote.

'Now that humankind stands on the threshold of an era when ever more sophisticated robots, bots, androids and other manifestations of artificial intelligence seem poised to unleash a new industrial revolution, which is likely to leave no stratum of society untouched, it is vitally important for the legislature to consider all its implications.'

The report says advances in robotics could bring about 'virtually unbounded prosperity' but could undermine the entire basis of the welfare state if too many people are made unemployed.

Robotics is expected to produce machines that are no longer just 'tools' but agents in their own right, able to teach themselves, roam around and make decisions, the committee's report states

It warns that within a few decades artificial intelligence could challenge humanity's 'capacity to be in charge of its own destiny and to ensure the survival of the species'.

Noel Sharkey, a professor at the University of Sheffield, said the proposals were a step toward rules in law for robotics, but humans must treat robots as inanimate and not sentient.

Mady Delvaux, the socialist MEP from Luxembourg who led the work, said that MEPs would vote on proposals within the next 12 months: 'This is a new world that we see arriving'.