Code of Ethics for Robotics: A Surgery Case Study

The future of robotics is broad and varied. New developments that delve deeper into the use of artificial intelligence and automation, for practices ranging from driver less cars to doctor less surgeries, calls for a defined code of cultural, ethical, and legal regulations that can guide engineers around the most delicate issues that may arise. With the reputation of the field resting on the evolution of a code of ethics this paper compares and discusses existing literature on the subject. With the foundation and influence of the existing literature this paper proposes a refined code of ethics designed to target the specific area of robotic engineering. It is also designed to remain applicable for future developments in the field. Having laid out the code it is then be applied to a case study focusing on surgery robots. Final recommendations and conclusions are made to advise future developments for an ethical code targeted at robotic engineers

Bioetika u srednjoškolskoj nastavi

We are witnesses of an attempt to enforce the curriculum reform in Croatia, as well as a proposal of a school for life. While the intent of this presentation is not to analyse the curriculum reform, it is important to mention that the curriculum reform, within the framework of the general educational group of subjects, kept the subjects like Ethics and Religion. Unfortunately, some subjects, such as History, Biology or Chemistry could lose their hours in the long run. The reason for bringing this up is simple. It could happen, and this would in no way be good, that within the corpus of teachers a devaluation of certain subjects occurs, as well as animosity among colleagues. When we take a look at the statements of certain politicians3 on some subjects (their importance and unimportance), the status of professors etc. we see just how much Croatia needs the constant repetition of the fact that a wholesome, well-rounded, mature individual is not made by brilliance in the STEM area nor excellence in natural sciences, but that very same individual also must strive for excellence and well-roundedness in the cultural, ethical, moral, and any other sense which makes up one of the wheels in the wholesomeness of a person. Any curriculum process, school for life or something of the sort, which would exclude some of the segments in the process of education in terms of the wholesomeness of a human being could only damage society on all levels in the long run.Svjedoci smo pokušaja provođenja kurikularne reforme u Hrvatskoj, kao i prijedloga škole za život. Nakana ovoga rada nije analizirati kurikularnu reformu, ali je važno spomenuti kako je kurikularna reforma u okviru opće obrazovne grupe predmeta zadržala predmete etika i vjeronauk. Nažalost, neki predmeti poput povijesti, biologije ili kemije dugoročno bi mogli izgubiti satnicu. Razlog zašto se ovo spominje je jednostavan. Moglo bi se dogoditi, a što nikako ne bi bilo dobro, da unutar nastavničkog korpusa dođe do obezvrjeđivanja pojedinih predmeta i netrpeljivosti među kolegama. Kad pogledamo izjave pojedinih političara33 o pojedinim predmetima (o njihovoj važnosti ili nevažnosti) o statusu profesora i sl. vidimo koliko je u Hrvatskoj potrebno uvijek iznova naglašavati kako cjelovitog, zaokruženog, zrelog pojedinca ne čini briljantnost u STEM području, niti izvrsnost u prirodnim znanostima i sl. nego taj isti pojedinac mora težiti izvrsnosti i zaokruženosti i u kulturnom, etičkom, moralnom i bilo kojem drugom smislu koji čini neki od kotačića u zaokruženosti osobe. Bilo koji kurikularni proces, škola za život ili nešto slično, koji bi isključivali neki od segmenata u procesu odgoja i obrazovanja u smislu cjelovitosti ljudske osobe dugoročno bi mogli samo štetiti društvu na svim razinama

“I’ll take care of you,” said the robot: Reflecting upon the Legal and Ethical Aspects of the Use and Development of Social Robots for Therapy

The insertion of robotic and artificial intelligent (AI) systems in therapeutic settings is accelerating. In this paper, we investigate the legal and ethical challenges of the growing inclusion of social robots in therapy. Typical examples of such systems are Kaspar, Hookie, Pleo, Tito, Robota, Nao, Leka or Keepon. Although recent studies support the adoption of robotic technologies for therapy and education, these technological developments interact socially with children, elderly or disabled, and may raise concerns that range from physical to cognitive safety, including data protection. Research in other fields also suggests that technology has a profound and alerting impact on us and our human nature. This article brings all these findings into the debate on whether the adoption of therapeutic AI and robot technologies are adequate, not only to raise awareness of the possible impacts of this technology but also to help steer the development and use of AI and robot technologies in therapeutic settings in the appropriate direction. Our contribution seeks to provide a thoughtful analysis of some issues concerning the use and development of social robots in therapy, in the hope that this can inform the policy debate and set the scene for further research.Horizon 2020(H2020)707404Article / Letter to editorInstituut voor Metajuridic

Towards Ethics in Robotic Cities

A new concept has emerged from the Internet of Things (IoT) called the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT). Within urban environments, decisions concerning our habitat are commonly made via democratically or by consensus. Future systems involving IoT and IoRT will include, not only hard elements, but also software, (such as bots) and social to soft system interactions, with many stakeholders resulting in ambiguity and unclear requirements. In the case of wicked problems, this research looks into the area of knowledge co-creation and Problem Structuring Methods (PSM), which work better. In the near future, we will be surrounded by a large number of software and hardware systems that uses collaborative AI, or at least co-dependent AI. Similar to the science of human to computer interaction, we will have distributed social systems to distributed AI interaction. This research sheds light on ethics as a socio-technical element when modelling robotic cities infrastructures. The paper considers full actuation autonomy and control by IoT/IoRT, therefore adding software bots and social soft systems into the mix, as well as interdependencies of infrastructure hard-systems. Past robotics research of ethics debates whether ethics should be taught to robots vs hard programmed into robots, whilst a third school of thought discusses the philosophical implications. This research takes an alternative route to that. It provides definitions, establishes common grounds and opens discussions regarding how we can model our societies' interactions with a distributed Artificial Intelligent (AI) system; replacing the various human experts running the autonomous city. The research concludes with a preliminary proposal that is an abstraction resulted from a literature review conducted in this topic area

An Introduction to Ethics in Robotics and AI

This open access book introduces the reader to the foundations of AI and ethics. It discusses issues of trust, responsibility, liability, privacy and risk. It focuses on the interaction between people and the AI systems and Robotics they use. Designed to be accessible for a broad audience, reading this book does not require prerequisite technical, legal or philosophical expertise. Throughout, the authors use examples to illustrate the issues at hand and conclude the book with a discussion on the application areas of AI and Robotics, in particular autonomous vehicles, automatic weapon systems and biased algorithms. A list of questions and further readings is also included for students willing to explore the topic further

An Introduction to Ethics in Robotics and AI

This open access book introduces the reader to the foundations of AI and ethics. It discusses issues of trust, responsibility, liability, privacy and risk. It focuses on the interaction between people and the AI systems and Robotics they use. Designed to be accessible for a broad audience, reading this book does not require prerequisite technical, legal or philosophical expertise. Throughout, the authors use examples to illustrate the issues at hand and conclude the book with a discussion on the application areas of AI and Robotics, in particular autonomous vehicles, automatic weapon systems and biased algorithms. A list of questions and further readings is also included for students willing to explore the topic further

A Code of Ethics For Robotics Engineers

This project developed a draft code of ethics for professional robotics engineers by researching into the fields of robotics, ethics and roboethics to develop the necessary understanding. The code was drafted and presented to students, professors and professionals for feedback and revision. The code is now hosted at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions website (ethics.iit.edu), and is open for discussion at (rbethics.lefora.com. It is being proposed for adoption to the WPI Robotics Program faculty and the WPI Robotics Engineering Honors Fraternity, Rho Beta Epsilon