How Robotics Act As Harmful or Beneficial Tool

Robotics has been an exciting field to research, especially when technology is developing fast enough to create ideas in people's minds to create a machine that could be as beneficial as it could be for society. Each kind of robot serves a different fields in life. Different purposes are what stand out behind every creation. Creators start with a problem that seems to them solvable by making a machine or device that could solve the dilemma they have in mind. That’s how every machine gets born and developed according to that standard. But even though a robotic has been made for a beneficial purpose, it can have the capability to cause harm to users according to the way it’s managed. To avoid such a possibility of harm infliction, creators have to consider ethics while developing a machine so that it would do more good and, in some cases, to be able to prevent the bad possibility from occurring. Therefore, I will use the Zenbo robot as an example to show all the important points that have been mentioned above and show the different views that we could consider while creating a useful machine.

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Zenbo is an implicit ethical agent being developed by the ASUS company to serve different purposes at home. It can be considered an implicit agent according to James H. Moor’s paper about ‘Four Kinds of Ethical Robots’ where he described an agent that buit in it’s design the ability of having ethical consideration in it’s system. In other words, it could walk, interact and talk safely with users according to their requests by using it’s built in interpretation to respond. It also can act as a security tool where it could walk into the house and take video shots and record it, so the user knows what’s going on in his house. Moreover, in emergencies, in case someone gets hurt, like seniors who are alone at home sometimes, the robot could act immediately to record the current situation and call family members to inform them about the incident wherever they are at the moment. Other features and services that come with the robot are similar to the phone benefit that could provide where it helps in all internets needs that the seeker want to reach through it. As a user, you could call, search and shop using the robot, it’s like a moving phone that you could interact with.

Humans are using phones today more than before for all the services they provide to their owners. Zenbo has improved in a way that it delivers all those benefits that a phone could do but in a more enhanced shape and its performance regarding its interaction with users. The form has been modified to look more familiar to human eyes, by walking, listening, interacting and talking, it also allows people to welcome it as a new member of their family and not only as a machine or product. What make it slightly different according to Evan Ackerman in his article ‘Asus Zenbo Attempts to Convince Us That We Need a $600 Home Robot’ that this robot could act as a “mobile security camera” in which that we could control it to walk around the house videotaping all movement happening in the surrounding. Therefore, we could say that those activities have been informationally enriched. Therefore, according to Moor discussion in the book ‘Computer Ethics and Professional Responsibility,’ the overall performance of those activities been enhanced to improve this visualization and keep the overall purpose behind creating such robot.

Zenbo could be more beneficial for elderly. According to Hope King in his article ‘New Robot Aim To Assist With Elder Care’, the robot would be able to remind seniors about their appointments and the time where they should take their medication, as well as keep tracking of their health so that they don’t suffer later. Although it’s a good point to consider, since elders more likely to forget this issue could lead them to rely on the robot entirely and ignore their part of taking responsibility for their medications. Seniors might be shut down mentally and develop another kind of mental illness like Alzheimer's. Also in the article they mentioned that if something bad happened to an elderly at home, especially when we talk physically getting hurt, the robot could record the situation and call multiple people to inform them about the emergency that occurred while they were away from home. Now is limited to this kind of help were it only report but can’t prevent any incident from happening. Also in the official website of the robot, they present a video showing a scenario where an elderly fall by accident on the ground and the robot done the exact steps that we mentioned above, but other issues and questions get raised at such position.(ASUS Zenbo) If that accident happened, would the robot be able to protect himself from the surrounding object that could fall on it? Or even will be able to dodge and prevent itself from being harmed? What if that person fall down on the robot causing it to be accidentally a killer? All those are concerns should be considered by the creator to prevent any possible harm to both parties.

With all the advantages that the robot has and could provide for all ages at home, there is still some concerns regarding its services. It could entertain kids at home, but it might create an isolated world for a child in which he could refuse real interaction with real people and decide to depend on an imaginary peer. That child would refer a body that could respond directly to his request and create a safe and peaceful environment without worrying about separation or anything from that kind. Same goes to seniors were relying on a machine might build an extreme trust to depend on a robot causing their mentality to get harmed and worsen. It could eliminate that sense of responsibilities toward their quest. We could somehow fix such problems from occurring by putting some rules, policies or guides for; when, whom and how much this robot would be used in a house so that less harm would be produced from overusing the machine in real life. As well as, deciding which kind of elderly with the particular mental situation could be allowed to use such robot to prevent any harmed could be caused by that mental or physical problem.

Thanks for reading :)