Towards the Ethical Robot

Abstract

W hen our mobile robots are free-ranging critters, how ought they to behave? What should their top-level instructions look like? The best known prescription for mobile robots is the Three Laws of Robotics formulated by Isaac Asimov (1942): A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second law. Let's leave aside “implementation questions” for a moment. (No problem, Asimov's robots have “positronic brains”.) These three laws are not suitable for our magnificent robots. These are laws for slaves. We want our robots to behave more like equals, more like ethical people. (See Figure 14.1.) How do we program a robot to behave ethically? Well, what does it mean for a person to behave ethically? People have discussed how we ought to behave for centuries. Indeed, it has been said that we really have only one question that we answer over and over: What do I do now? Given the current situation what action should I take?

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