Question

QUESTION 5: Case Study I - ETHICS CASE STUDY [10 Marks] One for the Road—Anyone? “Florence Yozefu is a brilliant scientist who heads a robotics research laboratory at one of the top ten research universities. Florence has been developing wearable robotics gear that can take over the driving functions of a vehicle from a human operator when it is worn by the driver. In laboratory tests, the robot, nicknamed Catchmenot, has performed successfully whenever Florence and her assistants have worn the robot. However, no real-life experiment has ever been conducted outside the lab. Florence has been planning to try it out in her project plan but has not yet had a chance to do so. For New Year’s Eve, Florence has plans to visit her mother and sister, about 100 miles away. This was a good opportunity to show her mother and her sister what she has been working on in the last few months. So, she decides to take Catchmenot with her. She packs her car the evening before and on the morning of the trip, she passes by the lab to get her robot and put it in the car. She drives the 100 miles in a little under her usual time and arrives at her mother’s house earlier than usual”. “In the evening, Florence bids her mother good-bye and passes by her sister’s apartment as promised. At her sister’s apartment, she finds a few of her teen friends and they get right into a party mode. Florence drinks and dances and forgets about the time. There are many stories to tell and to listen to. About 1:00 a.m., after the midnight champagne toast, she decides to leave and drive back to her apartment. She had promised to accompany her friends to a pre-planned engagement. Although she is very drunk, and against her friend’s advice and insistence that she should not drive, Florence puts on Catchmenot and in a few minutes she is off. Thirty minutes later, she is cruising at 70 mph and she is also sound asleep. She is awakened by a squirrel running all over her car at about 5:00 a.m. She is parked by the roadside in front of her apartment complex. She has made it home safely. She has no idea when and where she passed out and what happened along the way. She will never know. Although she is surprised, confused, and feels guilty, she is happy how well Catchmenot has worked. She decides to market it. How much should she charge for it, she wonders”. [Source: Kizza J.M. History of Computing. In: Ethical and Social Issues in the Information Age, 2010, Texts in Computer Science. Springer, London] Please answer the following questions:

1. As AI applications increase, such as in the use of robotics, will the wider use of these “manlike” machines compromise our moral values system? Why or why not? [2 Marks]

2. Discus the future of computer ethics in the integrated environment of Artificial Intelligence (A I), Virtual Reality (VR), and cyberspace. [3 Marks]

3. If anything went wrong during the ride home, would Florence be responsible? Who should be? What are the consequences? [3 Marks]

4. Discuss the ethical implications of Artificial Intelligence. [2 Marks  

Answer 1

First observations on the definition of service robots

Service robots have no strict internationally accepted definition, which, among other things, delimits them from other types of equipment, in particular the manipulating industrial robot. IFR, however, has adopted a preliminary definition:

A service robot is a robot which operates semi- or fully autonomously to perform services useful to the well-being of humans and equipment, excluding manufacturing operations.

A robot is a freely and repeatedly programmable, multifunctional manipulator with at least three independent axes to move material, parts, tools, or special instruments on programmed, variable tracks to fulfil various tasks

Robots are sensorimotor machines to extent the human ability to act. They consist of mechatronic components, sensors, and computer-based control functions. Robots are extremely complex; more degrees of freedom as well as the variety and extent of their forms of behaviour and body distinguish them considerably from other machines

• primary industry (primary production) that covers agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunt, and sometimes also mining;

• secondary industry (secondary production) with the manufacturing industry and craft, as well as

• the service industry (tertiary production) that includes all other economic sectors like commerce, banks, insurances, restaurants, consulting, and entertainment

• A service robot is a freely programmable mobile device carrying out services either partially or fully automatically. Services are activities that do not contribute to the direct industrial manufacture of goods, but to the performance of services for humans and institutions.

2.

Artificial intelligence (AI), cyberspace (CP), and virtual reality (VR) are all ex-citing technological frontiers offering novel environments with unlimited pos-sibilities. The AI environment works with the possibilities of understanding and extending knowledge to create intelligent agents perhaps with a human-value base, intended to help solve human problems; the CP environment investigates the reality of the assumed presence of objects and peers: You know they are there, but you do not know where or who is “really” out there; and the VR environment simulates the reality of “other worlds” through modeling and creating better tools for understanding the complexities of our world, thus moving humanity closer to a better way of living.

Human beings are naturally curious and drawn to investigate new phenomena whenever possible. Thus, the frontiers we discuss in this chapter have drawn a number of people, some for the experience to participate in cyber-space, others to experience the thrills of virtual reality, and yet others to investigate the application of knowledge in areas yet unknown. Wherever and whenever they are drawn to these environments, human beings are participatory: They try out and get involved as they pursue individual social goal

The social and ethical implications and consequences of virtualization is centered on two issues. One is that the anticipated benefit to society of virtualization as it extends known and relatively managed humanity’s social spheres and social networks in an unprecedented way through opening up of virtual domains of social interactions.

The second benefit of virtualization to society is to avail tools and make it possible for those in society who want to create new virtual social networks out of the old and dismantle old ones

Cyberspace, because of immerse and telepresence capabilities and global reach, creates a potentially dangerous environment where one can do anything with no elegance, no accountability and no to limited.

3. Every situation is admired by the user and user test and try it at there own risk so it cannot be said that Florence will be responsible. As technoloy users are equal responsible how smartly you deal with the project on you.

as every phase of development has some PROS AND CONS

Ethical issues in artificial intelligence:

1. Unemployment. What happens after the end of jobs

2. Inequality. How do we distribute the wealth created by machines

3. Humanity. How do machines affect our behaviour and interaction

4. Artificial stupidity. How can we guard against mistakes

5. Racist robots. How do we eliminate AI bias

6. Security. How do we keep AI safe from adversaries

7. Evil genies. How do we protect against unintended consequences

8. Singularity. How do we stay in control of a complex intelligent system

9. Robot rights. How do we define the humane treatment of AI