HCRI is pleased to announce it has joined the Partnership on AI. The Partnership on Al exists to study and formulate best practices on Al, to advance the public’s understanding of Al, and to provide a platform for open collaboration between all those involved in, and affected by, the development and deployment of Al technologies. ToContinue reading “HCRI Joins The Partnership on AI”
Category Archives: Law/Ethics/Policy
HCRI in IBM X-Prize Top Ten Teams
The XPRIZE Foundation has announced that 59 teams have been selected to move forward in the $5 million IBM Watson AI XPRIZE competition. The teams, which represent 14 countries, are developing vastly different technologies, all of which demonstrate how humans can collaborate with powerful artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to tackle some of the world’s greatestContinue reading “HCRI in IBM X-Prize Top Ten Teams”
Peter Haas at TEDxDirigo
Peter Haas spoke at TEDxDirigo on The Real Reason to Be Afraid of Artificial Intelligence
Michael Littman at TEDxProvidence
Michael Littman spoke at TEDxProvidence September 30th 2017 on “How I learned to stop worrying and be realistic about AI”
Could your robot hurt you? Perhaps, but not intentionally.
Because robots’ decision-making abilities are not at the level of humans’, there are liabilities that come with industrial robots, automated vehicles, caretakers, and other positions that involve life-or-death situations. More so than robots rebelling and taking over the world, people should be worrying about robots malfunctioning or falling into the hands of the wrong people.Continue reading “Could your robot hurt you? Perhaps, but not intentionally.”
Who Will Drive the Revolution?
“I will remember that artificially intelligent machines are for the benefit of humanity and will strive to contribute to the human race through my creations.” – Lee McCauley’s 2007 proposed a Hippocratic oath for roboticists The field of robot ethics often focuses on ethical problems with creating robots. But because certain populations are in needContinue reading “Who Will Drive the Revolution?”
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 behaviorContinue reading “Getting Robots to Behave”
Should we model robots after humans?
Children get attached to their toys. They bring them on trips, care for them, ascribe human qualities to them, and even worry about them. As it turns out, adults do too, especially when these toys lend themselves to human empathy. An object triggers an empathetic response when it moves on its own, has eyes, and/orContinue reading “Should we model robots after humans?”
Cyber-sentience: detecting “artificial” consciousness
“We already have impressive models and simulations of a couple dozen of the brain’s several hundred regions,” writes Ray Kurzweil in The Singularity is Near.1 But how accurate can these models get before they stop being models, and how advanced can artificial intelligence be before it is no longer artificial? We are getting closer andContinue reading “Cyber-sentience: detecting “artificial” consciousness”
Raunchy robotics: the ethics of sexbots
You may have seen recent Kia Forte commercials featuring “Hotbots” — their version of a female sex robot commonly known as a fembot.1 In this ad, it is implied that the owner of the car is using the robot for sex. Kia used a human actress for the robot,2 but such advanced technology is notContinue reading “Raunchy robotics: the ethics of sexbots”
Brown University Humanity Centered Robotics Initiative 