Future Intelligent Autonomous Robots, Ethical by Design – Lessons Learned from Autonomous Cars Ethics

Abstract

The "ethical by design" approach involves examining all stages of a lifecycle of technology to ensure that they are ethically justifiable and socially sustainable. Building on our work on the ethics of autonomous intelligent robocars, and studies of the literature on the ethics of robotics, we propose for robot applications a set of values and ethical principles including safety, security, privacy, transparency, and explainability, accountability, fairness, human control, well-being, autonomy and freedom, and sustainability. This may help stakeholders in the field of intelligent autonomous robotics to connect ethical principles with their applications. Most ethical considerations we identified in our work on autonomous cars are relevant to all AI-powered robots, but robots require additional examination depending on their application domain, such as social robots (care robots, personal companions, robots used in education, health care, elderly care, education, entertainment, chat-bots), industrial robots, etcetera. Thus, existing ethical frameworks need to be applied in a context-sensitive way, by assessments in interdisciplinary, multi-competent teams through multi-criteria analysis. Furthermore, we argue for the need for continuous development of ethical principles, guidelines, and regulations, informed by the progress of technologies and involving relevant stakeholders. This implies designing the socio-technical system as an intelligent learning ecology.