New Applications for Artificial Intelligence

New Applications for Artificial Intelligence and Consumer Robots

The futuristic animated television series from the 1960s, "The Jetsons," featured a dowdy but enormously useful robot named "Rosie" who was not only personable, but also performed all of the family's household chores and was an excellent cook as well (even though the Jetsons also had a food-a-rack-a-cycle that created meals instantly). Although consumer robots have not yet reached the "Rosie" phase, they are getting closer every day. In fact, Moore's Law continues to hold true and computer processing speeds have doubled every 18 months or so since the law was propounded by this co-founder of Intel. As a result, consumer robots have become increasingly more functional and useful. According to Deal and Hsiung (2007), there is a wide range of consumer robotic products and devices currently available. "For example," they advise, "there are robotic lawn mowers, such as the Lawnbot Evolution that will cut up to three-fourths of an acre, robotic vacuum cleaners (Roomba), action robots such as Robosapien and Roboraptor, and the familiar LEGO Mindstorms and LEGO NXT and VEX robot construction sets" (Deal & Hsiung, 2007, p. 11). Indeed, a growing assortment of consumer robots that clean gutters, mop floors, and provide verbal interactions with lonely elders have also hit the market, and the trends in a growing consumer robotics industry are clear. For instance, Honda's Asimo robot, although still largely in a developmental stage, is already performing reception services for Japanese companies and provides other useful consumer functions such as serving beverages and meals (see Figure 1 below).

Figure 1. Honda's Asimo Robot Serving Meals to Japanese Consumers

Source: http://ai.stanford.edu/~lsentis/files/ASIMO-new-773001.jpg

Although robots differ in their size, complexity, and intellectual abilities, they all possess some common features. For instance, Deal and Hsing add that, "Some robotic devices have very complex instruction sets to provide very precise repetitive control of a robot, and some may even learn new processes and responses to external stimuli using artificial intelligence techniques, while others may be programmed to perform simple operations" (p. 12). Taken together, these current trends suggest that consumer robots will become an increasingly commonplace sight in businesses and households alike in the near future, but the further development of consumer robots remained constrained by certain technological and even ethical issues which are discussed further below.

Statement of the Problem

As consumer robots continue to grow in sophistication and abilities, there will inevitably come a point at which they gain sentience. This theme has been the focus of a number of motion pictures (i.e., "The Terminator," "I Robot," etc.) but in many ways, the future is now when it comes to determining how humans should interact with robots and what rules should be in place in their programming to ensure robots do not go berserk and injure or even kill humans. According to McGee (2007), "A robot with sinister intentions, without ethics, or adhering dispassionately to a code of ethics where intuition and subtlety is required (remember RoboCop?) has been the fuel of science fiction for decades. Should we require robot makers to program in a code of ethics to domestic products?" (p. 30). Foreseeing this current era, Isaac Asimov formulated his famous, "Three Laws of Robotics" which state:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law (quoted in Meladze, 2006 at p. 232).