Where Is Robotics Headed? What Is “Machine Ethics” and Why Is It Important?
Written by Neda Daliri, 30 October 2021
For long the field of robotics was mostly driven by industrial needs, and robots were used for precise repeatability to increase production in industrial sectors. However, as artificial intelligence (AI) entered this field, it began to change the scene of robotics research and application so much so that, today, AI robotics is perhaps the most exciting field in robotics. In fact, AI introduced an untrodden path of possibilities to roboticists. To make robots intelligent meant that they could process huge amounts of data and decide spontaneously. Dependent on the imagination of roboticists, this possibility was then used to develop various types of robots with unique and practical functions. However, AI robotics also brought with it many controversies and challenges.
Technically, researchers faced complex models and unpredictable environments which were not previously dealt with. Other than these challenges, the ethical issues of artificial intelligence have also created controversies among experts as some believe that robots cannot be moral while others argue that robots can make better decisions because they use only logic, not emotion. Those in favor of AI reason that robots can estimate consequences better than humans since they are not emotionally involved and base their decisions on data and facts. What was clear though was the importance of ethics in artificial intelligence. Machine Ethics is the interdisciplinary field of study which connects robotics, philosophy and computer sciences. The book titled “Machine Ethics” by Cambridge University Press is a main resource on this topic. It mostly emphasizes on ethical considerations while programming robots, and advises programmers to be vary of bugs which can yield unethical results.
It seems that the future of robotics is tied with artificial intelligence, with both its merits and challenges. Intelligent robots are supposed to make our decisions more efficient, so it is important to program them to make ethical decisions. What is your opinion? Do you stand for intelligent robots, or against them? It might be fair to say that we all stand for ethical intelligent robots.
By Neda Daliri
