Robotics Today: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

Although robots and robot fantasies have existed in some form for over two millennia, we are only beginning to see their predicted benefits come to fruition in our world of rapidly developing cheap technologies. Robots are now entering our homes for domestic service; they are harvesting our fruit, making our cars, milking our cows, performing surgery, and nursing us. Yet despite the long lead in, we are surprisingly unprepared for the consequences. No proper guidelines have been set in place for the influx of autonomous machines. Governments have been more concerned with issues such as the possibility of robots having legal rights than with the pressing ethical problem on our doorsteps. Work has already begun on robot carers for our aging populations and for minding our children. More worryingly, robots are integral to the US $230bn future combat systems project, a massive plan to develop unmanned vehicles that can strike from the air, under the sea and on land. South Korea and Israel are deploying armed robot border guards and China, Singapore and the UK are among those making increasing use of military robots. Uglier yet, the military technologies are coming back to haunt civilian world with increased use in policing and surveillance. This talk aims to provoke wider discussion of the new developments and their ethical implications.