Robot future poses hard questions
Scientists have expressed concern about the use of autonomous
decision-making robots, particularly for military use.
As they become more common, these machines could also have negative
impacts on areas such as surveillance and elderly care, the
roboticists warn.
The researchers were speaking ahead of a public debate at the Dana
Centre, part of London's Science Museum.
Discussions about the future use of robots in society had been
largely ill-informed so far, they argued.
Autonomous robots are able to make decisions without human
intervention. At a simple level, these can include robot vacuum
cleaners that "decide" for themselves when to move from room to
room or to head back to a base station to recharge.
Military forces
Increasingly, autonomous machines are being used in military
applications, too.
Samsung, for example, has developed a robotic sentry to guard the
border between North and South Korea.
It is equipped with two cameras and a machine gun.
The development and eventual deployment of autonomous robots raised
difficult questions, said Professor Alan Winfield of the University
of West England.
"If an autonomous robot kills someone, whose fault is it?" said
Professor Winfield.
"Right now, that's not an issue because the responsibility lies
with the designer or operator of that robot; but as robots become
more autonomous that line or responsibility becomes blurred."
Professor Noel Sharkey, of the University of Sheffield, said there
could be more problems when robots moved from military to civil
duties.
"Imagine the miners strike with robots armed with water cannons,"
he said. "These things are coming, definitely."
The researchers criticised recent research commissioned by the UK
Office of Science and Innovation's Horizon Scanning Centre and
released in December 2006.
Robot rights
The discussion paper was titled Utopian Dream or Rise of the
Machines? It addressed issues such as the "rights" of robots, and
examined developments in artificial intelligence and how this might
impact on law and politics.
In particular, it predicted that robots could one day demand the
same citizen's rights as humans, including housing and even
"robo-healthcare".
I can imagine a future where it is much cheaper to dump old people
in big hospitals where machines care for them
Professor Noel Sharkey
"It's poorly informed, poorly supported by science and it is
sensationalist," said Professor Owen Holland of the University of
Essex.
"My concern is that we should have an informed debate and it should
be an informed debate about the right issues."
The robo-rights scan was one of 246 papers, commissioned by the UK
government, and complied by a group of futures researchers, the
Outsights-Ipsos Mori partnership and the US-based Institute for the
Future (IFTF).
At the time, Sir David King, the government's chief scientific
adviser, said: "The scans are aimed at stimulating debate and
critical discussion to enhance government's short and long-term
policy and strategy."
Other scans examined the future of space flight and developments in
nanotechnology.
Raised questions
The Dana Centre event will pick up some of these issues.
"I think that concerns about robot rights are just a distraction,"
said Professor Winfield.
"The more pressing and serious problem is the extent to which
society is prepared to trust autonomous robots and entrust others
into the care of autonomous robots."
Caring for an ageing population also raised questions, he
said.
Robots were already being used in countries like Japan to take
simple measurements, such as heart rate, from elderly
patients.
Professor Sharkey, who worked in geriatric nursing in his youth,
said he could envisage a future when it was "much cheaper to dump a
lot of old people" in a large hospital, where they could be cared
for by machines.
Scenarios like these meant that proper debate about robotics was
imperative, he added.
"In the same way as we have an informed nuclear debate, we need to
tell the public about what is going on in robotics and ask them
what they want."