Robotics

In the popular imagination, Artificial Intelligence is commonly associated with embodied talking robots.

Robots in popular culture

The word robot is derived from the Czech word ‘robota’ meaning ‘worker’ or ‘slave’ and was first introduced to the English language in the 1920 play, Rossum’s Universal Robots by Czech brothers Josef (a painter and a writer) and Karel Capek (playwright). The first modern ‘artificial human’ captured on screen was in Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis, which featured a mesmerising robot realised from the essence of Maria, the film’s female protagonist. Since then, films have given us an array of different robots, some of them little more than tin boxes, some of them intelligent with conversational abilities (TARS robot from Interstellar; the Terminator), and some with a menacing purpose (Roy Batty from Blade Runner; Ash from Alien; Ava from Ex Machina).

The laws of robotics

As you can see from the above examples, robots in popular culture tend to come from the genre of science fiction, which has often been a useful forum for discussing many of the ethical issues involved in AI. An example of this can be seen in Asimov’s laws of robotics, which have proved to be highly influential. For example, in 2007, they formed the basis of the Robotics Ethics Charter, proposed by the South Korean government (Anderson 2017). In 1942, the American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov introduced the three laws in the short story Runaround. The three laws are as follows:

1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

(Emerging Technology from the arXiv 2014)

A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

The reality: robots in the 21st century

Your task

Consider the simulation of movement by machines. How far do you think they are from realising compliance to Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics?

What might be the problem with Asimov’s three laws and the later Zeroth law of robotics?

References

_{Anderson, M.R. (2017). After 75 Years, Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics Need Updating. The Conversation https://theconversation.com/after-75-years-isaac-asimovs-three-laws-of-robotics-need-updating-74501}

_{ATR. (n.d.). Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories. http://www.geminoid.jp/en/index.html}

_{Boston Dynamics. (n.d.). Boston Dynamics: Changing Your Idea of What Robots Can Do. https://www.bostondynamics.com/}

_{Emerging Technology from the arXiv. (2014). Do We Need Asimov’s Laws? MIT Technology Review https://www.technologyreview.com/s/527336/do-we-need-asimovs-laws/}

_{Hanson Robotics. (n.d.). Hanson Robotics: We Bring Robots to Life.https://www.hansonrobotics.com/}

_{International Federation of Robotics. (2018). Robot Density Rises Globally. https://ifr.org/ifr-press-releases/news/robot-density-rises-globally#targetText=The%20top%2010%20most%20automated,Federation%20of%20Robotics%20(IFR)}

_{International Federation of Robotics. (2019). Order World Robotics Reports https://ifr.org/worldrobotics/}

_{NASA Office for Education. (2014). Robotics.https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/robotics/home/index.html}

_{Robertson, J. (2018). Robo Sapiens Japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family, and the Japanese Nation. California University Press}