from Part III - Ethics, Culture, and Values Impacted by Human–Robot Interactions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2024
This chapter discusses the topic of ethics, law, and policy as related to human interaction with robots which are humanoid in appearance, expressive, and AI enabled. The term “robot ethics” (or roboethics) is generally concerned with ethical problems that occur when humans and robots interact in various social contexts. For example, whether robots pose a threat to humans in warfare, the use of robots as caregivers, or the use of robots which make decisions that could impact historically disadvantaged populations. In each case, the focus of the discussion is predominantly on how to design robots that act ethically toward humans (some refer to this issue as “machine ethics”). However, the topic of robot ethics could also refer to the ethical issues associated with human behavior toward robots especially as robots become active members of society. It is this latter and less investigated view of robot ethics that the chapter focuses on, and specifically whether robots that are humanoid in appearance, AI enabled, and expressive will be the subject of discrimination based on the robot’s perceived race, gender, or ethnicity. This is an emerging topic of interest among scholars within law, robotics, and social science and there is evidence to suggest that biases and other negative reactions which may be expressed toward people in social contexts may also be expressed toward robots that are entering society. For these and other reasons presented within the chapter, a discussion of the ethical treatment of robots is an important and timely topic for human–robot interaction.
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