Robotics and artificial intelligence meet the humanities: Some initiatives for ethics education and dissemination

Abstract

The influence of the humanities on the study of a technological subject like robotics needs to rapidly grow, for\nthe simple reason that robotics is becoming a part of\nhumanity: assisting, interacting, and enabling people in\nan increasing number of ways in daily life. The robotics\nresearch community is well aware of the need for such\na crossover with the humanities and many joint ventures\nare being undertaken, such as forums on “Robotics\nmeets the Humanities” at main robotics conferences,\nthe launching of research projects, and the publication\nof special issues in scientific journals. This cross-cutting\nhas even led to a new discipline: Roboethics, a subfield\nof applied ethics studying both the positive and negative implications of robotics for individuals and society,\nwith a view to inspire the moral design, development\nand use of so-called intelligent/autonomous robots,\nand help prevent their misuse against humankind. The\ndiscipline involves two main areas: legal regulation and\nethical education. Regarding the former, institutions\nsuch as the European Parliament, the South Korean\nRobot Ethics Charter, the IEEE Standards Association,\nand the British Standards Institution are developing regulations for robot designers, programmers, and users.\nThere are many options to integrate ethics education\n(or Humanities) in technological university degrees,\nranging from including a professional ethics course in\nthe syllabus, to allowing students to take certain credits\nor a minor in a Humanities Department, to even offering a combined degree, like the Computer Science and\nPhilosophy degree at the University of Oxford. Prestigious associations such as IEEE and ACM include 18\nknowledge areas in their Computer Science curricula,\none of which is “Social Issues and Professional Practice”, so that “students develop an understanding of the\nrelevant social, ethical, legal and professional issues”.\nTo this end, some courses in this area recur to science\nfiction to exemplify conflictive situations, since narrative is a good way to engage students in safe discussion\nCarme Torras\nand reasoning about difficult and emotionally charged\nissues without making it personal. Some experiences\nalong this line will be described

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