Robots

Robotics researchers have a duty to prevent autonomous weapons

Robotics is rapidly being transformed by advances in artificial intelligence. And the benefits are widespread: We are seeing safer vehicles with the ability to automatically brake in an emergency, robotic arms transforming factory lines that were once offshored and new robots that can do everything from shop for groceries to deliver prescription drugs to people who have trouble doing it themselves.

But our ever-growing appetite for intelligent, autonomous machines poses a host of ethical challenges.

Rapid advances have led ethical dilemmas

These ideas and more were swirling as my colleagues and I met in early November at one of the world’s largest autonomous robotics-focused research conferences – the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. There, academics, corporate researchers, and government scientists presented developments in algorithms that allow robots to make their own decisions.