Ethical Robots and Robot Ethics
Standardization
In 2010 Prof. Winfield co-organized a workshop to discuss robot ethics under the banner of the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, the agency that provides most of the funding for robotics in the UK. The workshop resulted in the publication of 5 Principles of Robotics. The workshop delegates noted that science fiction and the media have created an image of robots as some type of independent species that can either help or harm people. However, robots are a technology build and used by people. The 5 Principles therefore are explicitly formulated to govern people not robots. Principle #2 for instance states that "Humans, not robots, are responsible agents. Robots should be designed (…) to comply with existing laws & fundamental rights & freedoms, including privacy".
Following on from the Principles of Robotics Prof. Winfield became a member of the working group on robot ethics for the British standards institute. The group proposed a draft standard called BS8611: Guide to the Ethical Design and Application of Robots and Robotic Systems which is currently open for public consultation. “It may not become standard because the standardization process takes years and has to go through many stages. But it would be great if it did, because that would be the world's first standard on robot ethics”, said Prof. Winfield. “I can see ethics as the beginning of the process which lead into standards. Standards are really important because they make products safer. Standards allow people to have confidence, and hence trust in products.”
Joint responsibility
“Robot ethics is not owned and should not be owned by exclusively roboticists”, said Prof. Winfield. “There needs to be philosophers, lawyers, a whole range of people involved. For a set of ethical principles to be accepted, for them to gain traction, they have to be robust, credible, meaningful, to people who are not engineers. In fact, especially to people who are not engineers.”
I asked Prof. Winfield what electronic engineers like himself can contribute to the ethics of robotics. “When I was young I did not care. I was just utterly focused and fascinated by the technology and nothing else. As I got older I gradually became more aware of the societal impact of electronics. Electronics is just like science, it is not ethically neutral. When you design a piece of electronics you’re not working in an ethical vacuum. I would urge electronic engineers to take an interest in the wider ethical and societal implications of the very circuits that they are designing.”
Image: Nao robot. By Marc Seil. CC-BY licence.
In 2010 Prof. Winfield co-organized a workshop to discuss robot ethics under the banner of the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, the agency that provides most of the funding for robotics in the UK. The workshop resulted in the publication of 5 Principles of Robotics. The workshop delegates noted that science fiction and the media have created an image of robots as some type of independent species that can either help or harm people. However, robots are a technology build and used by people. The 5 Principles therefore are explicitly formulated to govern people not robots. Principle #2 for instance states that "Humans, not robots, are responsible agents. Robots should be designed (…) to comply with existing laws & fundamental rights & freedoms, including privacy".
Following on from the Principles of Robotics Prof. Winfield became a member of the working group on robot ethics for the British standards institute. The group proposed a draft standard called BS8611: Guide to the Ethical Design and Application of Robots and Robotic Systems which is currently open for public consultation. “It may not become standard because the standardization process takes years and has to go through many stages. But it would be great if it did, because that would be the world's first standard on robot ethics”, said Prof. Winfield. “I can see ethics as the beginning of the process which lead into standards. Standards are really important because they make products safer. Standards allow people to have confidence, and hence trust in products.”
Joint responsibility
“Robot ethics is not owned and should not be owned by exclusively roboticists”, said Prof. Winfield. “There needs to be philosophers, lawyers, a whole range of people involved. For a set of ethical principles to be accepted, for them to gain traction, they have to be robust, credible, meaningful, to people who are not engineers. In fact, especially to people who are not engineers.”
I asked Prof. Winfield what electronic engineers like himself can contribute to the ethics of robotics. “When I was young I did not care. I was just utterly focused and fascinated by the technology and nothing else. As I got older I gradually became more aware of the societal impact of electronics. Electronics is just like science, it is not ethically neutral. When you design a piece of electronics you’re not working in an ethical vacuum. I would urge electronic engineers to take an interest in the wider ethical and societal implications of the very circuits that they are designing.”
Image: Nao robot. By Marc Seil. CC-BY licence.
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