Robots & Rights: Will artificial intelligence change the meaning of human rights?

1. Background
2. Speaker Profiles
3. Recommended Resources
4. Audio Links

Background

In 2006 the UK Office of Science and Innovation's Horizon Scanning Centre commissioned research into the future of robotics. The resulting paper, entitled “Utopian dream or rise of the machines?”, examined the developments in artificial intelligence and how this may impact on law and politics. The report predicted a "monumental shift" that could occur should robots develop to the extent where they are able to reproduce, improve themselves or develop artificial intelligence.

With Bill Gates heralding ‘a robot in every home’ and a future in which robotic devices will become a part of our day-to-day lives, the ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ drawn up by Isaac Asimov could possibly shift from just being a good piece of science fiction to helping to shape the basis of future public policy.

Is the future of robotics fact of fiction? What is artificial intelligence truly capable of producing? What are the challenges to humanity and how could this impinge on our human rights?

On the 15th January 2008 at the Royal Society of Medicine, London, BioCentre hosted an assessment of these new challenges, informed by key actors within this emerging field of science and technology.

 

Speaker Profiles

Dr. Nick Bostrom
Director, Future of Humanity Institute,
Faculty of Philosophy & James Martin 21st Century School, University of Oxford

Speaking on: The Ethics of Artificial Minds.

Nick Bostrom is Director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University.  He previously taught at Yale University in the Department of Philosophy and in the Yale Institute for Social and Policy Studies.  He has more than 130 publications to his name, including three books.  His writings have been translated into 16 different languages. 

Dr. Bostrom has a background in physics, computational neuroscience, and mathematical logic as well as analytic philosophy.  Bostrom is a leading thinker on the consequences, ethical dimensions, and risks of anticipated future technologies and on "big picture questions" for humanity.  His research also covers the foundations of probability theory, scientific methodology, human enhancement, and moral philosophy.


Prof. Dr. Kerstin Dautenhahn
Professor of Artificial Intelligence, University of Hertfordshire

Speaking on: Robots as Artificial Beings? – A Human-Robot Interaction Viewpoint.

Prof. Dr. Kerstin Dautenhahn is Research Professor in the School of Computer Science at University of Hertfordshire in U.K. where she coordinates the Adaptive Systems Research Group. She received her Ph.D. degree from the Biological Cybernetics Department of the University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany, in 1993. She has published more than 150 research articles on social robotics, robot learning, human-robot interaction and assistive technology. Human-Robot Interaction studies are one of her current key research interests.

Prof. Dautenhahn has edited several books and frequently organizes international conferences. For example, she hosted the AISB'05 convention with the general theme of 'Social Intelligence and Interaction in Animals, Robots and Agents', and was general Chair of IEEE RO-MAN 2006 (International Symposium on Human and Robot Interactive Communication) with the general theme of 'Getting to Know Socially Intelligent Robots'. She is co- general chair of the ACM/IEEE conference HRI'08. She is involved in several European projects on developmental robotics (Robotcub), robot companions (Cogniron), educational virtual environments (eCircus), and assistive technology (IROMEC). Prof. Dautenhahn is Editor in Chief of the journal Interaction. Her studies lie in Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems.


 
Prof. Steve Torrance
Professor Emeritus in Cognitive Science at Middlesex University
Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science group at the University of Sussex

Speaking on: Robot Ethics: Fantasy or Necessity?

Steve Torrance has researched in the philosophy of AI and cognitive science over two and a half decades.  He has published many articles and collections of papers on issues concerning the conceptual and ethical foundations of artificial personhood.   Within the last year he has edited a collection of papers on ‘Ethics and Artificial Agents’ for a special issue of the journal AI and Society (forthcoming early 2008); and was the lead editor for a special issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies (July 2007) on ‘Machine Consciousness: Embodiment and Creativity’.  He is Professor Emeritus in Cognitive Science at Middlesex University, and a visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science group at the University of Sussex.  He holds a doctorate in moral philosophy from the University of Oxford.

 

Resources

 "Utopian dream or rise of the machines?” - UK Office of Science and Innovation's Horizon Scanning Centre.

A robot in every home - Writing in the journal, Scientific American, Bill Gates predicts that the next hot development will be robotics.

Walking with Robots - With the aim of clearing up misconceptions about what intelligent robots are, 'Walking with Robots' is a three-year programme of public events funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

BioCentre symposium report - Robots & Rights: Will artificial intelligence change the meaning of human rights?

Audio

Audio recordings of this Symposium can be downloaded here