Getting Robots to Behave

One of people’s biggest concerns regarding the possibility of owning robots is losing control of these robots(1). Getting robots to cooperate with humans is a challenge given the numerosity and complexity of the rules governing social conduct. Isaac Asimov illustrated this difficulty in his short story “Runaround,” in which the rules governing a robot’s behavior conflict, cancel one another out, and supersede one another in unpredictable ways. Whether instilling appropriate behavior in robots is the job of its designers or its owners, and whether these behaviors should be intrinsic or learned, is up for debate. What is clear is that we need a better understanding of what guides moral behavior in humans as well as how to program these codes into robots to ensure ethicality and effectiveness.

Advanced social robots may need built-in ethical guidelines for their behavior in order to avoid situations in which robots are used to manipulate or harm people (2). The first step is getting people to agree on what these guidelines are — for example, should robots merely avoid bumping into people, or should they politely evade them by saying “Excuse me”? (3). The next step is implementing these guidelines. Wendell Wallach and Colin Allen’s book Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong describes two approaches to robot morality: programming the robot to predict the likelihood of various consequences of various actions, or having the robot learn from experience and acquire moral capabilities from more general intelligence.

But as it stands, the social abilities of robots are currently very rudimentary (4). According to the 2013 Roadmap for U.S. Robotics, “medical and healthcare robots need to understand their user’s state and behavior to respond appropriately,” which requires a multiplicity of sensory information that current robots have trouble collecting, let alone integrating into something meaningful and utilizing to inform their own behavior. As an illustration, voice recognition features on cell phones often have trouble understanding what the user is saying, and security cameras often fail to recognize human faces (3). The roadmap also mentions the importance of empathy in healthcare, rendering socially assistive robotics (SAR) for mental health problematic. Joseph Weizenbaum, creator of the first automated psychotherapist in the 60s, balked at the idea that his creation, Eliza, could replace a human therapist (5). Today, there are more advanced automated therapist programs, but like Eliza, they mostly echo what the user says and ask generic questions. Therapeutic robots have been more effective in the realm of interactive toys for autistic children, as long as these are viewed as toys and, like any robotic invention, not as replacements for human relationships.

-Suzannah Weiss

1 Ray, C., Mondada, F., & Siegwart, R. (2008) What do people expect from robots? IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 3816–3821.

2 Scheutz, M. The Inherent Dangers of Unidirectional Emotional Bonds between Humans and Social Robots. Robot ethics: the ethical and social implications of robotics. Ed. Lin, Patrick. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2012.

3 Murphy, R. R., & Woods, D. D. (2009). Beyond Asimov: The Three Laws of Responsible Robotics. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 24(4), 14–20.

4 “A Roadmap for U.S. Robotics: From Internet to Robotics.” 2013 Edition. March 20, 2013.

5 Schanze, J. (Director) (2011). Plug & Pray [Documentary]: B.P.I.