South Korea Writing Robot Code of Ethics

Even robots have to worry about ethics codes.

An ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa, is being drawn up by the government of South Korea, where millions of dollars are being devoted to robot research. South Korea is one of the world's most high-tech societies and authorities there say that robotics are a key economic driver. The Ministry of Information and Communication has predicted that every South Korean household will have a robot by between 2015 and 2020, according to BBC News.

The new guidelines could reflect the three laws of robotics put forward by author Isaac Asimov in his short story Runaround in 1942.

Key considerations of the robot ethics code would include ensuring human control over robots, protecting data acquired by robots and preventing illegal use.

"Imagine if some people treat androids as if the machines were their wives," Park Hye-Young of the ministry's robot team told the AFP news agency. Ewwwww!

"Others may get addicted to interacting with them just as many internet users get hooked to the cyberworld."

Gee, do you think robots will blog? Or that some already do?

Comments

Posted by: Josue at March 30, 2007 6:53 PM

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