The Morality Of Abusing A Robot

Our paper The Morality Of Abusing A Robot has been published.

We are happy to announce that our paper “The Morality Of Abusing A Robot” has been published under the Creative Commons license at the Paladyn Journal. You can also download the PDF directly.

It is not uncommon for humans to exhibit abusive behaviour towards robots. This study compares how abusive behaviour towards a human is perceived differently in comparison with identical behaviour towards a robot. We showed participants 16 video clips of unparalleled quality that depicted different levels of violence and abuse. For each video, we asked participants to rate the moral acceptability of the action, the violence depicted, the intention to harm, and how abusive the action was. The results indicate no significant difference in the perceived morality of the actions shown in the videos across the two victim agents. When the agents started to fight back, their reactive aggressive behaviour was rated differently. Humans fighting back were seen as less immoral compared with robots fighting back. A mediation analysis showed that this was predominately due to participants perceiving the robot’s response as more abusive than the human’s response.

We created a little video to demonstrate the two main conditions of the experiment, a human or a robot being abused and then fighting back. We would like to acknowledge Jake Watson and Sam Gorski from Corridor Digital who made the stimuli for this experiment available.

New Podcast Episode: Artificial Artificial Intelligence

New Podcast Episode on the Terrible Foundation, Turing Test and Artificial Intelligence.

I am proud to announce my new Human-Robot Interaction Podcast Episode: Artificial Artificial Intelligence. Alan Turing devised the Imitation Game as a test the intelligence of machines. This test is also used in human-robot interaction. But what happens if not a computer is trying to convince you that it is a human, but a human is trying to deceive you in thinking he is an artificial intelligence? In this episode we will discuss the Turing Test, the Zach super computer and what it means to think. I interviewed Diane Proudfoot and David Farrier about the Terrible Foundation, Turing Test and Artificial Intelligence.

New Episode of the HRI Podcast available.

New HRI Podcast episode about ATR is available.

The new HRI Podcast episode entitled “Humans and/or Robots at ATR” is now available. Here is the abstract:

The Advance Telecommunication Research Institute International in Japan is a major contributor to Human-Robot Interaction. I interview Takayuki KandaMichita Imai and Dylan F. Glas about their work on robots at ATR. How was Robovie developed and what is the goal of the Erika android? In two episodes we will have a closer look at the people working at ATR and the robots they created. We will also discuss what it means to work for a research lab like ATR in Japan.

Ethik in KI und Robotik

My first scientific book in German is now available. Here is the blurb:

Was darf KI eigentlich?

Unser Leben wird zunehmend von Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) und Robotik beeinflusst. Autonome Fahrzeuge kommen auf unsere Straßen, Roboter werden für eine Vielzahl von Aufgaben im Gesundheitswesen vorgeschlagen – von der Unterstützung älterer Menschen bis zum Einsatz bei Operationen – und Algorithmen entscheiden über Kreditanträge sowie sogar über den Einsatz automatischer Waffensysteme. Viele Menschen befürchten, dass KI langfristig die Kontrolle über unser Leben übernimmt.

Vor diesem Hintergrund wird es immer wichtiger, die ethischen Grundlagen und Auswirkungen des Einsatzes von KI und Robotik in unserer Gesellschaft zu diskutieren. Dieses Buch bietet eine Einführung in das Thema, die keine technischen, rechtlichen oder philosophischen Kenntnisse voraussetzt. Es behandelt Fragen des Vertrauens, der Verantwortung, der Haftung, des Datenschutzes und des Risikos in der Beziehung der Nutzer zu KI-Systemen und Robotik.

Die Autoren veranschaulichen die Themen im gesamten Buch anhand von Beispielen. Am jeweiligen Kapitelende befinden sich Fragen, die zur Diskussion von KI-Anwendungen einladen, von der Gesundheitsfürsorge bis zur Kriegsführung. Weiterführende Literatur dient ebenfalls als Anregung für den Leser.

Aus dem Inhalt:

  • Was ist KI?
  • Was ist Ethik?
  • Fairness und Vertrauen in KI-Systeme
  • Verantwortung und Haftung bei KI-Systemen
  • Risiken der KI für Unternehmen
  • Psychologische Aspekte der KI
  • Privatsphäre und KI
  • Human Enhancement
  • Autonome Fahrzeuge
  • Militärische Anwendungen der KI

Study on the emotional facial expression of LEGO Minifigures

Today the media picked up on one of our studies on the emotional expressions of LEGO Minifigure faces. Some of it is a dramatization, so here is the full text of study for your consideration. The paper received a honorable mention at the upcoming First International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (iHAI 2013).