The Ethical Landscape of Robotics

Abstract

Abstract-This paper surveys some of the main ethical issues pertaining to robotics that have been discussed in the literature. We start with the idea of responsibility ascription that arises when an autonomous system malfunctions or harms people. Next, we discuss various ethical issues emerging in two sets of robotic applications: service robots that peacefully interact with humans and lethal robots created to fight in battlefields. Then, we provide a short overview of machine ethics, a new research trend that aims at designing and implementing artificial systems with "morally" acceptable behavior. We then highlight resulting gaps in legislation, and discuss the need for guidelines to regulate the creation and deployment of such autonomous systems. Often, when designing such systems, the benefits tend to overshadow partly unknown but potentially large negative consequences.

Ethic Reflections about Service Robotics, from Human Protection to Enhancement: Case Study on Cultural Heritage

“…It is a common belief, in fact, that robotics, especially the service category, will have a great impact on many aspects of our society in the near future. Society is actually experiencing what Łichocki et al [1] defined as a "robotic demographic explosion." Given the complexity of this emerging society, the interdisciplinary cooperation between different disciplines will play a strategic role in this coming era of human-robot coexistence [2].…”

“…The theme of human replacement in many activities is already widely addressed, both from scientific community [1,2,4] and from mass media [5][6][7]. Furthermore, the relationship between man and machine has always fascinated science fiction writers who often enjoyed imagining futuristic scenarios where robots affirm their domain.…”

A Moral Judgment System using Evaluation Expressions

“…There are many studies by philosophers trying to implement moral common sense to artificial intelligence [17][18][19][20][21]. Wallch et al [21] proposed a hybrid model combining a posteriori model and a deductive model.…”

“…Second, the details are reinforced posteriorly. However, these studies [17][18][19][20][21] only proposed a framework of the system and the evaluation results are not shown.…”

Automatic Emotion Recognition through Facial Expression Analysis in Merged Images Based on an Artificial Neural Network

“…Nowadays, Artificial Intelligence with its major contributions seems to show us that there is no doubt that sooner or later the machines will be become more and more clever, e.g., intelligent machines are balanced to fill a growing number of roles in today's society, and its influence is entering directly virtually every domain of our lives, including surgical assistants [2], fighting on battlefields like autonomous fighter machines [3], and assisting in classrooms in educational contexts [4], nursing homes [5], and offices [6].…”