The term immediately brings to mind Colossus: The Forbin Project, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and War Games. None of them show a futuristic utopia. Sentient computers are a good idea in theory but once human psyche and intelligence are injected into it all sense goes out the window. Universal benevolence was never a strong suit of the human race.
Alyn Rockwood, Ph.D. has written a novel on the matter called How Noble in Reason. Personally, at first blush sentient computers / androids sounds kinda cool: tell it what to do and it can reason what you want and go do it. But then in the case of androids (a la I, Robot and this episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation), sticky personhood issues crop up. Given the intelligence and possible strength that we ourselves have given them, full-scale revolt could possibly erupt.
I surely hope that if this comes to pass, some sort of safeguards are put into place to prevent this "revolt" because I really don't wanna end up being a battery......
* HAL Still Rules As Ultimate Computer
* University of Cambridge Sentience Research
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