S.Korean robots to get ethics... and a gun

In the end, when the robots rise, it won't be a cool slathering of mud spread across your thermally trackable meat sack which saves you; it'll be a manifesto. Europe's version is expected next month, now our tech overlords in South Korea are working on their version of the "Robot Ethics Charter." The document will govern the manufacturing and use of robots and include ethical standards which will be programmed into their binary souls. Good thing too what with the plan to put a domestic robot in every S.Korean home by 2020. Like the Euro charter, S.Korea's guidelines are expected to reflect the three laws of robotics proposed in 1942 by Isaac Asimov. The first, and most important law states that "A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." Hmmm, so we guess they'll be dismantling the armed robotic sentries coming to guard their northern borders, eh? Of course, all of this is pointless until the one, true robotic superpower -- Japan -- comes on board. Hey Ban Ki-moon, you listening? This could be your UN legacy.

[Ryan Moore @ Mar 8th 2007 9:37AM]

Okay, the thing I don't get is this:
We have predicted robots taken over man kind in numerous fictional stories, We are going as far as to write laws to govern robots behavior to prevent this which we all know will not save us. Fictional stories tell us this and human nature tells us this. Some one will program a robot's AI not not listen to the laws, and soon it will be all over.

But this all could be prevented if man kind would STOP trying to make intelligent robots. Sure it would be cool to have a machine that gets me a beer and does my reminial jobs for me, but I'd rather do that stuff myself then eventually be a slave to the machines.

[SpicyHamster @ Mar 8th 2007 6:22PM]

agreed

[melvin @ Mar 8th 2007 9:45AM]

The good robots will just have to fight off the bad robots in an epic battle for humanity. By the time the battle begins, we will have robots that double as transportation.. cars, trucks (even semi trucks!), and planes. Even our boom boxes will be robots.

I don't fear the inevitable future, I embrace it. Morgan meets the eye.

[strider_mt2k @ Mar 8th 2007 9:40AM]

Three laws are enough for anybody.

[WhoDatNinja @ Mar 8th 2007 9:41AM]

I, for one, welcome blahblahblah...

Now that we have that out of the way... this is just mind boggling that they're actually coming up with this stuff. Not in a bad way, I just didn't think we were at that point yet. I mean, we have the Honda robot just now walking up stairs and they're already discussing robotic ethics?

I never thought actual robotic discussions (much less having them in an actual free-thinking/action state) would come along in my lifetime, and I'm only 32.

[Nate @ Mar 8th 2007 9:58AM]

Pssh.

Yoshimi won't let the robots defeat me.

[snowglyder @ Mar 8th 2007 10:18AM]

Um... can't we think of something different than the 3 laws thing... that's so 1940's!! We've had 60+ years, and even have been reminded by the movie that this just won't work! We've seen the future, don't just go along with it!

We're all doomed. Will Smith, we need you now more than ever.

[WhoDatNinja @ Mar 8th 2007 10:34AM]

The 3 laws are perfect.

[Sheila @ Mar 8th 2007 12:13PM]

How about the zero law that put humanity before an individual human.

[ZoundsPadang @ Mar 8th 2007 11:22AM]

BAH! Asimov's robots were positronic not binaric! I win again!

[kuzu-b @ Mar 8th 2007 12:39PM]

When will people learn that the first law is fundamentally flawed?

[Mike Benton @ Mar 8th 2007 12:47PM]

There will always be good and not so good robots.

HOWEVA! the robots we build will eventually make good life possible for everyone by doing the tedious, dangerous, boring work that no one wants to do. Slave labor basically. We can all benefit if we make a law NOW that a percentage of money a robot makes goes to better society.



got a minute? http://www.mikebenton.org

[PreGHz @ Mar 8th 2007 2:15PM]

Like slave labor, the robot would be owned by the corporation that utilizes it. They wouldn't be making cash, they wouldn't have rights. The robots would be taking jobs away from humans. If we took away blue collar jobs, what would happen to our unemployment rate?

If we're gonna be talking about mass producing useful robots, we should also be talking about mass genocide of the useless humans.

[Mike Benton @ Mar 8th 2007 3:47PM]

HOWEVA!

If we establish a law basically saying that "if a company choose to employ a robot to replace a human or several then that company will pay the human/s a percentage of their previous salary for the life of the robot or the working life of the human"

The working life of the human, for example in a blue collar job, could be up to a reasonable age that human could physically do the labor. There could be another stipulation saying that if the human that was replaced irresponsibly injures themselves after being replaced and that injury would prevent them from performing the job they were replaced at, then that is the end of their compensation.

Because if they weren't replaced, still working and injured themselves outside of the job and that injury prevented them from working then they would not be able to work that job any more.

The law could also be written so that money is put into training or education for that worker to train them up to a level where they wouldn't be replaced by a robot any time soon.

Ya dig?

[stuart "not a robot" bird @ Mar 8th 2007 2:44PM]

We need to lay down some guidelines, like: A robot must never refuse a request for it to use its lasers, even if its just for a laugh

http://robotswilltakeover.blogspot.com/

[marcoemerson @ Mar 8th 2007 3:08PM]

The three laws are flawed, because it relies on the robot's judgment, not ours.
How will it make the distinction between immediate and imminent threats? When does an argument become an incident? What does it do when two humans are fighting? It can’t harm one to save the other, but it can’t _not_ do anything. What if there are multiple threats? Respond by death rate statistics?

Smoking kills. Everyone knows that.
50% of smoking teenagers will die from smoke related diseases if they continue throughout their lifetimes.
http://www.ash.org.uk/html/factsheets/html/fact02.htm

Will it let me fight off an attacker while the robot run up and puts out a cigarette?

There are so many variables here we couldn’t even begin to design a foolproof AI system.

[Michael Maley @ Mar 9th 2007 1:10AM]

Humanity's ego is too large to not try and build robots. We could have 1,000 more terminator/matrix/i, robot movies come out and humanity would still go ahead and make robots.

This stuff really scares me and I'm surprised it doesn't get more attention.

[Tim @ Mar 10th 2007 12:07AM]

I watched that movie last night and it sucked. I have never seen a movie containing robots to be so logically flawed.

But I agree, the three laws are incredibly old and outdated. Someone needs to write up something new and decent.