[ExI] Empathy problem - Should robots / AI look like humans / animals?

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Fri Jun 23 11:17:49 UTC 2017


GAMING EMPATHY

Is it unethical to design robots to resemble humans?
David Ryan Polgar  June 22, 2017

<https://qz.com/1010828/is-it-unethical-to-design-robots-to-resemble-humans/>

Quotes:
Human compassion is generally reserved for the living, and follows a
sliding scale that increases with how much awareness we believe a
being possesses. But in 2015, Japanese researchers found
neurophysiological evidence that humans feel empathy for robots
appearing to be in pain: Brain scans indicate that we have an
automatic visceral empathic reaction with both humans and objects that
look like humans.

That’s why many people cringe when they see Boston Dynamics’ robotic
dog getting kicked.

If we decide to treat human-looking objects merely as objects, would
that eventually lead to us objectifying humans, too? It is unclear how
human compassion, or the lack thereof, toward AI will affect our IRL
relationships. But there is the worrisome possibility that our freedom
to treat human-seeming tech in any manner we like (all the way from
being rude to physical abuse and sex-without-will) may transfer to
normalizing those actions in our human relationships. In other words,
society’s push toward humanizing AI could have the unintended
consequence of the dehumanization of actual humans.
-------------

This reminds me of a reported incident (details may be incorrect)
where a multi-legged robot was being demonstrated to a US general. As
they shot at it and gradually disabled it, the crippled machine still
struggled to continue the mission. Eventually the general stopped the
demonstration as he couldn't stand to watch the machine 'suffering'
any more.

I think this should be an important problem for designers to consider.

BillK




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