Ethics

Ayanna Howard, the first female dean of Ohio State University’s College of Engineering, discusses her new book on Sex, Race, and Robotics.

As Thanksgiving approaches, Berkshire Grey has partnered with City Harvest and the Greater Boston Food Bank for the Picking With Purpose initiative, which uses robots to pack meals in the fight against hunger.

In Episode 22 of The Robot Report Podcast, we learn about Invest Ottawa’s and Canada’s initiatives around drones, robots, and autonomous vehicles at Area X.O, as well as Miso Robotics’ expansion with White Castle, not to mention Halloween scares.

Karen Panetta, a Tufts University Professor and IEEE Fellow, discusses why developers of robots, drones, AI, and autonomous vehicles need to remember cybersecurity for adoption past the novel coronavirus crisis.

Developers of robots, drones, and intelligent systems should welcome data privacy regulations, writes entrepreneur and columnist Oliver Mitchell, because they will help confidence and adoption.

While autonomous vehicles promise to improve safety and reduce traffic, concerns remain about safety, according to a new NOVA special.

The U.S. Robotics Roadmap is a guide to where robotics is going for government and industry. The team behind it is seeking community participation for the next revision.

Are drones, AI, and robots developing faster than our ability to apply ethics? Recent discussions around AI ethics and drone deliveries versus private airspace demonstrate the need to think about ethics and technology.

The world’s first robot brothel is in Barcelona; a sex doll maker is taking pre-orders for animatronic heads attached to sex-providing bodies; one maker is offering a resistant persona which ethicists are equating to rape mode. Lots of headlines and titillating photos. What is really going on? It’s true that sex robots will someday happen,…

Conferences and trade shows, held in interesting locations around the world, can be entertaining, informative and an opportunity to explore new places, meet new people and renew acquaintances. Three recent examples: Xponential, the mostly defense-related unmanned land, sea and air show, held in Dallas; Innorobo, focused on service robotics, in Paris; and ICRA, the IEEE's premier robotics…

The world of mechatronics has an unlikely hero.  A bomb disposal robot became the delivery system for 1 pound of C4 explosive which killed the sniper in Dallas that shot 12 police officers. Strange as it seems, the bomb disposal robot became a bomb delivery system.  Is it a form of Improvised Explosive Device, as […]

The way that consumers interact with cars as well as the way that they operate cars will transform most functions in commuting, travel, communications, car ownership and many other as-yet unknown ways. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, said at this year's CES in Las Vegas: “Anyone who focuses solely on the…

The list of top stories in robotics for 2014 is a story of “MORE”: MORE uses of and for robots; MORE serious discussions about robots; MORE robots in unusual places; MORE news in the financial press; MORE funding, acquisitions and IPOs; and MORE choices. 2014 was the year when spectacular online sales drove companies like…

“To achieve long-term success, you have to manage for the long term.” Samuel Palmisano, Chairman, President and CEO, IBM Long-term thinking is a process we should but don’t do for various reasons. Very few governments make long-term planning a priority. China is an exception. [The sciences of robotics need long-term planning and funding for their development,…

By Frank Tobe, Editor & Publisher, The Robot Report Global Future 2045, held June 15-16 in New York City, had a big impact on me. The double-message promotion of GF2045 was intriguing and I thought it would be similarly interesting to my readers. PR stories featured the host, a wealthy young Russian, who wanted to…

By Frank Tobe, Editor/Publisher, The Robot Report Dmitry Itskov, a wealthy Russian Internet entrepreneur, hosted and sponsored last weekend’s Global Future 2045, an event organized to highlight the state of present day science and its relentless exponential march toward 2045, the year of the Singularity, the year when computers are expected to surpass the human…

GF2045 host Dmitry Itskov said “We are really at the time when technology can affect human evolution. I want us to shape the future, bring it up for public discussion, and avoid any scenario that could damage it.” Ray Kurzweil said that 2045 would be a time when computers surpassed the human brain and that,…

By Frank Tobe, Editor and Publisher, The Robot Report Source: KUKA, 1983 Do industrial robots really have a positive impact on employment? Of course they do and there are over 50 years of data proving that to be the case.  There are at least 350,000 people directly employed by and in the industrial robotics industry. However, industrial…

The Economist in recent weeks has printed a series of articles about robots but this video about robo-ethics is particularly clear and worth a few minutes of your time. Or read the book by George Bekey and Patrick Lim, “Robot Ethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics (Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Agents series)” from…

Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft and Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman, Mercedes Benz Much of what I saw at CES 2012 was about products being upgraded to “smart” under the premise that smart connectivity enables consumer convenience. It was definitely on the minds of most of those attending. That’s why the CES keynote speeches were so well attended:…

6-minute video addresses preconceptions and fears and shows Honda’s efforts to make their Asimo robot appealing rather than creepy. Psychological phenomena: if a robot behaves and moves in ways that enhance trust and engagement, you think it’s alive. Premise detailed in Erik Sofke’s Popular Mechanics article “Can Robots be Trusted?“ In same article, Sofke also…

Watch Ray Kurzweil’s presentation about the impact of accelerating technological progress at the Army’s Science Conference Listen to a fascinating two-part podcast about roboethics. Read a Navy-funded report about the need for ethics in robotics. Hear P.W. Singer’s NPR interview about his “Wired for War” book and his resulting concerns.