Rights for Robots Marisabel Guevara Oct. 2, 2007

I, Robot Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” (“Runaround”,1942) raised the question of limits and laws to govern artificial intelligence Robots should not be allowed to harm humans How should humans treat robots?

Bill of Rights Economy and technology are pushing for intelligent and autonomous machines Society is on the brink of a large scale robot to human interaction: –Dec Study by U.K.’s Office of Science and Innovation –Apr South Korea and Japan’s joint effort to release a Bill of Rights

Robot Servitude ‘Robot’ is derived from the Czech term robota, which means forced labor Slave = forced to work against its will Servant = voluntary labor Is it permissible to design intelligent and autonomous beings to be servants?

Argument against Premise: Engineered Robot Servitude = Engineered Human Servitude Autonomy Spectrum No Autonomy Entirely autonomous Pre-engineeringEngineered Immanuel Kant proposed the autonomy spectrum

Argument in favor Prove that: Engineered Robot Servitude ≠ Engineered Human Servitude For humans, there is a set of potentials that the human can fulfill. Indeed, depriving it of autonomy would deprive it of some potentials. For robots, there is no set of potentials. When a robot is designed, it will either exist as it is in the design, or not exist. Therefore, the argument becomes a “different people, different number” problem (John Stuart Mill).

Further considerations Lifespan –If a robot’s right to pursue happiness is defended, what happens when the robot is obsolete? Can we turn it off (euthanasia?)? Property –A free robot can earn wages? –Who funds the construction of a free robot?

Quiz Questions 1.Who was the first to consider the laws to govern human-robot interaction? What were these laws called, and what date where they published? A1: Isaac Asimov, “Three Laws of Robotics”, Which three nations are pioneering the Bill of Rights for robots? A2: U.K., South Korea, Japan 3. What is the root of the word ‘robot’ and what does it mean? A3: The Czech word robota, which means forced labor.