There's a sudden upswing in international awareness that the pace of progress in robotics is rapidly propelling these fields into uncharted ethical realms.
Updating Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics, a new set of laws has been proposed to govern operations by killer robots. John S. Canning, an engineer at the US Naval Surface Warfare Center, proposes that robot warriors should be allowed to mix it up among themselves freely, autonomously deciding to blast enemy weapon systems, but permission from a human operator should be sought for targeting humans.
The government of South Korea is drawing up a code of ethics to prevent human abuse of robots and vice versa. The Robot Ethics Charter will cover standards for robotics users and manufacturers, as well as guidelines on ethical standards to be programmed into robots.
An ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa, is being drawn up by South Korea. The Robot Ethics Charter will cover standards for users and manufacturers and will be released later in 2007.
The US military plans to have a vast robot army in the near future but has yet to come up with a concrete method for ensuring that mindless devices can operate safely alongside brained troops.
With robots now poised to emerge from their industrial cages and to move into homes and workplaces, roboticists are concerned about the safety implications beyond the factory floor. To address these concerns, leading robot experts have come together to try to find ways to prevent robots from harming people.
Japan is creating "robotic laws" along the lines envisioned by scientist Isaac Asimov in the Laws of Robotics he presented in a 1940 science fiction novel.
It has been the dream - and nightmare - of science fiction writers for decades. Now a team of engineers has conjured up a robot that can reproduce itself. The robot can self-replicate in much the same way that some living organisms are able to reproduce by cloning themselves.
An interview with Robotics expert, Kevin Warwick, on the threat that intelligent machines pose to the future survival of humanity.
Discussion of the feasibility of implementing Asimov's "Three Rules of Robots" to prevent a robotic takeover.