Is it OK to kick a robot dog?
Boston Dynamics created a robot dog named Spot that can dance Is it okay to kick a robot dog? It’s a funny question on the surface. It’s not alive . It doesn’t feel pain. So… who cares? Lately I’ve been reading a book on AI Ethics by philosopher Mark Coeckelberg, the book is filled with tricky questions that make you stop and rethink our relationship with machines—especially the smart ones. Let me walk you through a few of them, with a few everyday examples to help make sense of it. Q1: Should We Hold Robots Responsible for Their Actions? Imagine this: a self-driving car runs a red light and causes an accident. Who do we blame? The car? (It was the one driving!) The engineers who built it? The company that sold it? Mark brings up a similar question in the book: “We don’t hold very young children responsible for what they do because they don’t know better—should the same be done for AI?” Q2: What are the things that should only be done by humans? Let’s say AI gets really, really...