AI Ethics: Robotics
When we think about robots and Artificial Intelligence, it is obvious that most people picture a Terminator-style robot that hunts down humans who are threats to them. However, this vision is not what is occurring in robotics at our present technological time. In our time period, we are merely using robots to take over tasks that humans could do, but even this advancement has led to some ethical implications. These implications include dilemmas regarding employment, various autonomous systems, and the morality of robotic systems.
The first thing that should be discussed is the influence of robotics on employment in many sectors. Productivity increases greatly when using robots instead of humans due to their lack of many needs. This efficiency increase will dramatically impact our economic gains, but there should be ethical considerations before having robots do every job. In past generations and even now, classical automation takes the place of human muscles, not our brains. Still, when we can automate human thinking, we must consider the expansive change in our job markets. Our society also has to think about distributing the monetary costs and subsequent benefits of using this type of Artificial Intelligence in our workplace.
Furthermore, the usage of robotics and autonomy in various fields needs to be addressed. For example, autonomous vehicles can save approximately one million lives lost every year to traffic accidents. Various dilemmas about using these vehicles have been brought up, such as the “trolley problem,” where the user has to decide to sacrifice one life to save multiple or keep one person alive. In addition to these dilemmas, programmers for the vehicles have to account for user mistakes, keep driver safety in mind, and think about ensuring everyone's safety on the roads and streets.
Another example for which autonomy and robotics can be used is weaponry and warfare. Algorithms for warfare, such as having a computer trained on war simulations and using that information to decide on an army’s next move, can be implemented in the future. We can use robotics and autonomy to keep wars safer or destroy even more lives in this occurrence. It is up to governments and the programmers of these systems to always ensure their systems avoid the slaughter of innocents as has occurred in every war up to date, and to keep checks and balances in place such that not one autonomous algorithm has all the power to make decisions.
As the next generation of thinkers and idealists enters the workforce, we have to keep in mind the morality behind using AI and robotics wherever we go. To allow for a peaceful and well-built society in the future, we must ensure we use our technological advances to ensure the welfare of our society and not for death or destruction. Creating a better future for generations to come should be our only goal.
This is my last post for the blog series about AI and ethical dilemmas. Thanks for reading and supporting my endeavors.
Arjun Santhanakrishnan is a Student Ambassador in the Inspirit AI Student Ambassadors Program. Inspirit AI is a pre-collegiate enrichment program that exposes curious high school students globally to AI through live online classes. Learn more at https://www.inspiritai.com/.