Robots are increasingly taking on human tasks. When things go wrong companies need to be held accountable
by Noel Sharkey, Aimee van Wynsberghe / January 30, 2017 / Leave a comment
A member of staff shows ways to talk with an intelligent robot at Jinan West Railway Station in Jinan, China. Three intelligent robots offer information services to passengers in the railway station. (© Photo by Xinhua/Sipa USA)
We could be rushing headlong into a revolution in robotics without due caution. Industrial robots are not a new phenomenon: but now there is an upsurge in service robots for everything from healthcare to the care of children and the elderly; from cooking and preparing food to making and serving cocktails; from domestic cleaning to agriculture and farming; from policing, security and killing in armed conflict to monitoring climate change; and from robot surgery, to robot intimacy and protecting endangered species.
There were 4.7 million robots sold for personal and domestic use in 2014 including a 542 per cent increase in assistive robots for the elderly and disabled. This figure is forecast to rise to 35 million by 2018 at a conservative estimate. And the predictions do not include the rapid developments of driverless technology. Autonomous cars, trucks and buses are set to change our roads forever and revolutionise our transport and delivery services. Not to mention how our farming practices will change with automated tractors, ploughers and threshing machines.
The lure of massive new international markets is pushing governments and corporations to view robotics as a powerful econom…
You have now reached your limit of 3 free articles in the last 30 days.
But don’t worry! You can get another 7 articles absolutely free, simply by entering your email address in the box below.
When you register we’ll also send you a free e-book—Writing with punch—which includes some of the finest writing from our archive of 22 years. And we’ll also send you a weekly newsletter with the best new ideas in politics and philosophy of culture, which you can of course unsubscribe from at any time
Prospect may process your personal information for our legitimate business purposes, to provide you with our newsletter, subscription offers and other relevant information.
Click to learn more about these interests and how we use your data. You will be able to object to this processing on the next page and in all our communications.
