Mind the gap: responsible robotics and the problem of responsibility

Ethics and Information Technology 22 (4):307-320 (2020)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The task of this essay is to respond to the question concerning robots and responsibility—to answer for the way that we understand, debate, and decide who or what is able to answer for decisions and actions undertaken by increasingly interactive, autonomous, and sociable mechanisms. The analysis proceeds through three steps or movements. It begins by critically examining the instrumental theory of technology, which determines the way one typically deals with and responds to the question of responsibility when it involves technology. It then considers three instances where recent innovations in robotics challenge this standard operating procedure by opening gaps in the usual way of assigning responsibility. The innovations considered in this section include: autonomous technology, machine learning, and social robots. The essay concludes by evaluating the three different responses—instrumentalism 2.0, machine ethics, and hybrid responsibility—that have been made in face of these difficulties in an effort to map out the opportunities and challenges of and for responsible robotics.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Live it-- responsibility.Molly Aloian - 2009 - New York: Crabtree.
Towards cognitive robotics: Robotics, biology and developmental psychology.Mark Lee, Ulrich Nehmzow & Marcos Rodrigues - 2012 - In David McFarland, Keith Stenning & Maggie McGonigle (eds.), The Complex Mind. Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 103.
Responsibility and vigilance.Samuel Murray - 2017 - Philosophical Studies 174 (2):507-527.
The Mark of Responsibility.John Gardner - 2003 - Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 23 (2):157-171.
Responsible Ads: A Workable Ideal.M. Hyman - 2009 - Journal of Business Ethics 87 (2):199-210.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-07-21

Downloads
217 (#84,311)

6 months
29 (#93,536)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

David Gunkel
Northern Illinois University

References found in this work

Principia ethica.George Edward Moore - 1903 - Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. Edited by Thomas Baldwin.
Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to the Actor-Network Theory.Bruno Latour - 2005 - Oxford, England and New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press.
Computing machinery and intelligence.Alan M. Turing - 1950 - Mind 59 (October):433-60.

View all 50 references / Add more references