Robotic Legal Issues

[dporter]

Here is a link to an interesting article on robot safety and legal issues. The article brings up some ethical questions that might need to be addressed now that robots are becoming more common in industry and our homes, and since people are now being injured and killed in robot accidents. Should we have insurance against robotic injuries to humans? Laws about how closely robots can interact with humans? or against robotic sex (the Stepford wives)?

The articles is called "Trust me, I'm a robot" at

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7001829

[franklin97355]

We already have insurance against injury by robots. If you trip over your Roomba your covered just like if you tripped over your Hoover.

[dporter]

True, I think the article is referring more to accidents like a robotic aide pushing your wheelchair down the steps because you accidentally told it to go right instead of left. As robots become more involved in our everyday lives will it be our fault, the manufacturer's fault, or the robots fault? Your attorney argues you are not responsible because you are confused in your old age and the robot should be programmed to know not to push you down the steps. The company argues that it has gone to great lengths to insure every client's safety, but can't be responsible for the crazy orders people give it. Maybe you were trying to commit suicide? What will the lawyer for the robot say? I doubt there will be lawyers for robots, but in the future who knows? The article is bringing things up like this because some people are already starting to consider these possibilites. I think we have a long way to go before we need to worry about many of these problems, but some other may not be far off.

[franklin97355]

OK, you're talking lawyers I was talking legal, two different things.:)

[D0n]

funny how nobody has to argue about a gun killing a person...you blame the person who pulled the trigger....but attach a robot to the gun, and now the whole "Intent" issue comes to play. Malfunction, the robot decided to do it, Who told it to do that? sabotage? computer virus? Hacker? Terrorists?

Be pretty hard to get a conviction, both on or off a battlefeild, when a robot makes the kill.

[dporter]

OK, you're talking lawyers I was talking legal, two different things.:)


That's for sure, sometimes lawyers and legal, aren't even in the same ballpark.