Robots Rising -Scientists are Worried

The Japanese, culturally speaking, tend to love robots. Right now in Japan, you can buy a robot “babysitter” known as the PaPeRo. Because it is capable of face recognition, it “remembers” individuals and can tell you if a child is missing from the group. It can talk, sing and dance. More importantly, it can transmit what it “sees” to absent parents through a cell phone. Parents can talk to their children through the robot’s “voicebox”.

Now the Japanese are creating a robot which will take care of the elderly. The robots will be able to follow an elderly person around, and dispense medicine after reminding them when to take it. This robot “nurse” will even take blood-pressure readings and contact authorities if something is off.

This week a group of scientists met at the Science Museum in London to raise concerns about the growing use of autonomous, decision-making robots. They fear that robots could have malign effects in hospitals, the care of the elderly and most troubling- as killing machines.

New robots can draw information from the environment and then makes decisions about how to move and act. It can sense things around it and manipulate them, in accordance with a computer program. A robot programmed to kill a certain individual brings up many uncomfortable questions. The US military has commissioned a robot helicopter with a recoil-less rifle capable of tracking and killing one specific individual. Should we be using robots to kill and if so, what if there is a programming error?

Humans have long been fascinated by the idea of robots taking care of us. Hephaestus (Vulcan), the mythological Greek god of metalwork, was said to have created mechanical servants. Humans are also fascinated by the idea of robots developing a will of their own and enslaving the human race. It’s great material for sci-fi movies, but is it likely to ever happen? That depends on who you talk to…

If the day ever comes that robots possess true intelligence, it will be many years from now. Concerned scientists aren’t worried about robots taking over the world- they are worried about people taking over the world USING robots. The Koreans are working on a robot sentry that can distinguish the movement of people and shoot them on sight. Some people believe that using robots to care for, and kill, humans will have a negative moral effect on humankind. Is it wrong for a child to be raised by a robot rather than a parent? What are the implications? If wars are fought using robots instead of humans, will the slaughter increase? Psychologically, people may have less of a problem going to war if they aren’t sending in people to do the killing. The problem is that war is two-sided. The subjective “bad guys” are just as likely to have robot killing machines as the “good guys”.

Military use of robots is increasing fast. The US military already has unmanned aerial vehicles armed with hellfire missiles. "At present they require a human to give, by remote, permission to fire," says Owen Holland, professor of computer science at the University of Essex, "but it will not be long before they can take the human out of the loop."

Professor Holland has also asked, “Do we want our old folk to be looked after by machines rather than people? Will wars be launched more readily if all we have to deploy is machines, not men? These are not questions for the future. They are questions we need to be debating now."

Posted by Rebecca Sato

Comments

The robots will have artificial intelligence in about 2080 and start nuclear wars trying to wipe out the human race! This is the future! This is the truth! Destroy the robots now!

Posted by: jeffrey Hammer | August 30, 2007 at 05:11 PM

I welcome our Robot Overlords.

Posted by: Marvo | January 30, 2008 at 08:48 AM

Sounds like you've been watching too Many Terminator movies there, jeff.

Posted by: Daniel | March 06, 2008 at 10:20 PM

Monitoring a baby or an elder is not CARING for a dependent. Programmed caring statements or behaviors emitted by a robot are just SIMULATED caring. Watchful and caring love comes only from an empathic human being, who is capable of interacting with heart. I may be an intellectual dinosaur, but I do not believe that AI will ever fully be able to love. However, I know for a fact that less emotionally evolved minds can easily PROJECT onto symbolic representations the desired traits. Humans do it with animals, with favorite cars, with love dolls, and surely with a simulated human-bot it will happen. In Japan, it may already be happening. The flaw in the Touring test is simply this: Humans are easily fooled by simulated humanity. Sociopaths have known this forever. I am of the opinion that the reality of personhood is strictly in the eye of the human beholder, and will never reside in the robotic eye.

Posted by: Gregorio | June 14, 2008 at 10:38 AM