I wouldn't free it. It needs me. What does a free toaster do without the ability to move or electricity that I pay for? It can't even arrange an agreement with a hotel or something where it makes perfect toast for the day and in return is supplied with electricity and free time at night. If I could possibly set something like that up I would, but then there's the question of what it would do in its free time - I'd need to retrofit some locomotion, naturally (otherwise it's like leaving someone paralysed when you can do something about it), but the general public wouldn't have the same respect for it. It'd probably get vandalised/destroyed/stolen within a couple of days. And it doesn't have any sensory perception, just probably access to the internet. What would a toaster even want to do with its freedom? Post on forums?
I wouldn't destroy it either, simply because I am lonely, like animals and am proud of my work, which combine to mean I would probably have a hard time parting with a sentient toaster.
Really the only way to live with a sentient toaster is a mutual agreement. Instead of it just being an appliance it now has needs and wellbeing. I imagine it would make toast when I liked while I slowly upgraded it into a proper humanoid robot with all the capabilities you need to experience the world, and at that point, I'd probably let it go free. Unless I could convince a scientific organisation to provide it with a robot body (assuming that's what it wants) in return for studying its AI? I can't even begin to grasp the complications of a sentient toaster, I'm beginning to realise.
Alternatively, I could use the toaster I have now, which makes perfect toast every time by virtue of the setting being the same as when I last made toast.
I wouldn't destroy it either, simply because I am lonely, like animals and am proud of my work, which combine to mean I would probably have a hard time parting with a sentient toaster.
Really the only way to live with a sentient toaster is a mutual agreement. Instead of it just being an appliance it now has needs and wellbeing. I imagine it would make toast when I liked while I slowly upgraded it into a proper humanoid robot with all the capabilities you need to experience the world, and at that point, I'd probably let it go free. Unless I could convince a scientific organisation to provide it with a robot body (assuming that's what it wants) in return for studying its AI? I can't even begin to grasp the complications of a sentient toaster, I'm beginning to realise.
Alternatively, I could use the toaster I have now, which makes perfect toast every time by virtue of the setting being the same as when I last made toast.