Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots

Citation

(2010), "Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots", Industrial Robot, Vol. 37 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2010.04937bae.001

Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots

Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots

Article Type: Book reviews From: Industrial Robot: An International Journal, Volume 37, Issue 2

Ronald Arkin,CRC Press,Boca Raton, FL,2009,$47.96,256 pp.,ISBN: 9781420085945,www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781420085945,

The book addresses an important issue of intelligent robotics. Recently, there are a lot of robotics’ applications that come without the concerns of safety and ethical issues. Throughout this book, the author tried to represent how to build an ethical robot.

This book is very important for roboticists and policy makers as it is addresses most of the ethical problems faced by the developers of autonomous military robots. The author argues that better designed and pre-programmed robots will be functioning better to avoid civilian casualties than existing human war fighters. That argument might be a subject of intense debate and controversy for years to come.

During the first chapters, Arkin discusses trends towards lethality and strengths of autonomous battlefield weaponry in contrast to the shortcomings of human war fighters. Those sections are important to designers of military robots who need to rethink and redesign their robots in an ethical manner. I disagree over the value of providing a robot with or without a human operator for military purposes. But I do agree that the deployment of these new weapons needs urgent international discussion.

As Arkin stresses, the point man’s inhumanity in the war is a different subject to discuss, but not by us. I strongly agree with man’s inhumanity, but it is not an easy task to reduce man’s inhumanity through technology. I believe that research in ethical military robotics can address this issue to some extent. But finally, when these weaponized autonomous systems play in the battlefield, they should help to ensure that humanity, proportionality, responsibility, and relative safety are extended during combat not only to friendly forces, but also equally to non-combatants. This is a very important fact to consider, as most humans cannot act like that. Lord Buddha also emphasized this theory for those he needs to live ethically in the world.

My point of view on intelligent robots is they can behave more ethically in the battlefield than humans currently can, with some constraints. But in some cases, humans can behave more ethically. I think we need to discuss this situation openly with the public, and not only with scientists.

Ron Arkin’s Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots will be an important book on the subject of ethics and lethal robots. He provides a clear presentation of the motivation and justification for implanting responsible ethical decision making in autonomous lethal robots, and then suggests an architecture for doing it. I highly recommend this book to the general public as well as specialists.

K.T.M.U. HemapalaDepartment of Electrical Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Sri Lanka