I Call Alexa to the Stand : The Privacy Implications of Anthropomorphizing Virtual Assistants Accompanying Smart-Home Technology

This Note offers a solution to the unique privacy issues posed by the increasingly humanlike interactions users have with virtual assistants, such as Amazon\u27s Alexa, which accompany smart-home technology. These interactions almost certainly result in the users engaging in the cognitive phenomenon of anthropomorphism--more specifically, an assignment of agency. This is a phenomenon that has heretofore been ignored in the legal context, but both the rapidity of technological advancement and inadequacy of current applicable legal doctrine necessitate its consideration now. Since users view these anthropomorphized virtual assistants as persons rather than machines, the law should treat them as such. To accommodate this reality, either the courts or Congress should grant them legal personhood. This can be accomplished through the application of an objective test that is satisfied by the establishment of social and moral connections with these virtual assistants. Further, due to the paramount privacy concerns resulting from this technology\u27s use within the home, courts should establish a new privilege that protects the communications between users and their virtual assistants

Revealing the ‘face’ of the robot introducting the ethics of Levinas to the field of robo-ethics

This paper explore the possibility of a new philosophical turn in robot-ethics, considering whether the concepts of Emanuel Levinas particularly his conception of the ‘face of the other’ can be used to understand how non-expert users interact with robots. The term ‘Robot’ comes from fiction and for non-experts and experts alike interaction with robots may be coloured by this history. This paper explores the ethics of robots (and the use of the term robot) that is based on the user seeing the robot as infinitely complex

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 1

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 1

Machine Medical Ethics

In medical settings, machines are in close proximity with human beings: with patients who are in vulnerable states of health, who have disabilities of various kinds, with the very young or very old, and with medical professionals. Machines in these contexts are undertaking important medical tasks that require emotional sensitivity, knowledge of medical codes, human dignity, and privacy. As machine technology advances, ethical concerns become more urgent: should medical machines be programmed to follow a code of medical ethics? What theory or theories should constrain medical machine conduct? What design features are required? Should machines share responsibility with humans for the ethical consequences of medical actions? How ought clinical relationships involving machines to be modeled? Is a capacity for empathy and emotion detection necessary? What about consciousness? The essays in this collection by researchers from both humanities and science describe various theoretical and experimental approaches to adding medical ethics to a machine, what design features are necessary in order to achieve this, philosophical and practical questions concerning justice, rights, decision-making and responsibility, and accurately modeling essential physician-machine-patient relationships. This collection is the first book to address these 21st-century concerns

Intelligent Agents and Their Potential for Future Design and Synthesis Environment

This document contains the proceedings of the Workshop on Intelligent Agents and Their Potential for Future Design and Synthesis Environment, held at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, September 16-17, 1998. The workshop was jointly sponsored by the University of Virginia's Center for Advanced Computational Technology and NASA. Workshop attendees came from NASA, industry and universities. The objectives of the workshop were to assess the status of intelligent agents technology and to identify the potential of software agents for use in future design and synthesis environment. The presentations covered the current status of agent technology and several applications of intelligent software agents. Certain materials and products are identified in this publication in order to specify adequately the materials and products that were investigated in the research effort. In no case does such identification imply recommendation or endorsement of products by NASA, nor does it imply that the materials and products are the only ones or the best ones available for this purpose. In many cases equivalent materials and products are available and would probably produce equivalent results

Remote Access to a Prototyping Laboratory

There is a growing global demand for continuing adult higher education particularly in science and engineering subjects. New technologies are emerging which would enable the development of a Remote Access Laboratory for rapid prototyping of Artificial Intelligence, as a learning environment for mechatronic engineering, in which high precision electromechanical devices are designed to exhibit autonomous behaviour. Secondary research investigated the learning theories for a Remote Access Laboratory, and the current practices for distance learning, involving groupware in shared activity 'collaboratories'. Having determined that the laboratory would need a multi-user interactive environment architecture, with the requirement for adaptability to rapid developments,a distributed software architecture was selected. The laboratory design was subsequently argued to be best served by Intelligent Agents in a Multi-Agent system. The aims of the research were to establish the viability of a Remote Access Laboratory for mechatronic experimentation, and to evaluate the technologies required to implement such a laboratory environment for rapid prototyping. These were achieved by developing a novel user interface, based on a multi-functional screen layout, and a graphical specification facility to provide robotic navigation that is intuitive to use and does not require text-based programming. The research investigated the prototyping of robotic behaviour, which used Programming by Demonstration as an innovative technique to prototype robot navigation. The method of designing behaviours met an anticipated need to allow the robot to interact with an environment, to achieve goals under conditions of uncertainty, while requiring a level of abstraction in the behaviour design. The interface structured a composite of the designed behaviours into prototype Artificial Intelligence using a hierarchical behaviour architecture, which complied with the principles of Object Orientated programming. This was subsequently a new and original programming method to facilitate rapid prototyping of Artificial Intelligence design and structuring. Experimentation involved 20 participants attempting to accomplish a series of tasks which involved using the prototyped interface and an existing text-based robot programming system. The participants were profiled by their formal qualifications, knowledge and experience. The experimental data obtained were used to establish a comparative measure of the prototype interface success compared with an existing distance-learning, home experiment kit, in the form of a small controllable model vehicle. The data obtained provided strong evidence to support the hypothesis that a Programming by Demonstration based system for rapid prototyping is more flexible and easier to use than a previously existing distance learning text-based system. The Programming by Demonstration system showed great promise, being quicker for prototyping, and more intuitive. The learning interface design pioneered new techniques and technologies for rapid prototyping of Artificial Intelligence in a Mechatronics Remote Access Laboratory

The Philosophy of Online Manipulation

Are we being manipulated online? If so, is being manipulated by online technologies and algorithmic systems notably different from human forms of manipulation? And what is under threat exactly when people are manipulated online? This volume provides philosophical and conceptual depth to debates in digital ethics about online manipulation. The contributions explore the ramifications of our increasingly consequential interactions with online technologies such as online recommender systems, social media, user friendly design, microtargeting, default settings, gamification, and real time profiling. The authors in this volume address four broad and interconnected themes: What is the conceptual nature of online manipulation? And how, methodologically, should the concept be defined? Does online manipulation threaten autonomy, freedom, and meaning in life and if so, how? What are the epistemic, affective, and political harms and risks associated with online manipulation? What are legal and regulatory perspectives on online manipulation? This volume brings these various considerations together to offer philosophically robust answers to critical questions concerning our online interactions with one another and with autonomous systems. The Philosophy of Online Manipulation will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working in moral philosophy, digital ethics, philosophy of technology, and the ethics of manipulation

Exploring Algorithmic Literacy for College Students: An Educator’s Roadmap

Research shows that college students are largely unaware of the impact of algorithms on their everyday lives. Also, most university students are not being taught about algorithms as part of the regular curriculum. This exploratory, qualitative study aimed to explore subject-matter experts’ insights and perceptions of the knowledge components, coping behaviors, and pedagogical considerations to aid faculty in teaching algorithmic literacy to college students. Eleven individual, semi-structured interviews and one focus group were conducted with scholars and teachers of critical algorithm studies and related fields. Findings suggested three sets of knowledge components that would contribute to students’ algorithmic literacy: general characteristics and distinguishing traits of algorithms, key domains in everyday life using algorithms (including the potential benefits and risks), and ethical considerations for the use and application of algorithms. Findings also suggested five behaviors that students could use to help them better cope with algorithmic systems and nine teaching strategies to help improve students’ algorithmic literacy. Suggestions also surfaced for alternative forms of assessment, potential placement in the curriculum, and how to distinguish between basic algorithmic awareness compared to algorithmic literacy. Recommendations for expanding on the current Association of College and Research Libraries’ Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (2016) to more explicitly include algorithmic literacy were presented

Штучний інтелект

Funding: Research, preparation of materials and preparation of the textbook were carried out under the project – grant no. PPI/KAT/2019/1/00015/U/00001 "Cognitive technologies – second-cycle studies in English" and were carried under the KATAMARAN program Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA). The program is co-financed by the European Social Fund under the Knowledge Education Development Operational Program, a non-competition project entitled "Supporting the institutional capacity of Polish universities through the creation and implementation of international study programs" implemented under Measure 3.3. Internationalization of Polish higher education, specified in the application for project funding no. POWR.03.03.00-00-PN 16/18. The project was carried out in cooperation with the Silesian University of Technology (project leader – Poland) and the Kiev National University of Construction and Architecture (project partner – Ukraine).Фінансування: Дослідження, підготовка матеріалів та підготовка підручника були здійснені в рамках проекту - грант №. PPI/KAT/2019/1/00015/U/00001 "Когнітивні технології-навчання другого циклу англійською мовою", які здійснювалися за програмою КАТАМАРАН Польське національне агентство академічного обміну (NAWA) . Програма спільно фінансується Європейським соціальним фондом у рамках програми "Знання" Оперативна програма розвитку освіти, позаконкурентний проект під назвою "Підтримка інституційної спроможності польських університетів через створення та реалізація міжнародних навчальних програм ", що реалізуються відповідно до Заходу 3.3. Інтернаціоналізація польської вищої освіти, зазначена у заявці на фінансування проекту POWR.03.03.00-00-PN 16/18. Проект здійснювався у співпраці з Сілезьким технологічним університетом (керівник проекту - Польща) та Київським національним університетом будівництва та архітектури (партнер проекту - Україна)