Rampaging killer tyrant robots. In the movies, they keep subjecting humans to their own systems of oppression. My favorite is when they mechanize all human operations and sequester them in Matrix-like pods.

Cinematic simulations aside, these types of fears are held by eminent minds. In his final book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, Stephen Hawking describes a futuristic scene where crookedly programmed robots hack into vital facilities and take over the world. Neil deGrasse Tyson and Elon Musk also share the apocalyptic fear, while Jeff Bezos expresses it with less intimidation. Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku thinks the threat of AI will materialize not for us, but for our grandkids. Once robots gain self-awareness, he says, realizing theyre indeed robots, they could pose some kind of intended threat against humanity. Fueling the dystopian vision is Kakus idea that humans will be genetically and cybernetically fused with robots at that point, a cinematically seductive Franken-entanglement sure to bewitch another generation of sci-fi addicts.

Whether the fears are just products of busy imaginations and automation or are apocalyptically accurate depends on various factors and, I think, whether AI and robots are automated with high emotional quotients (EQs). Emotively programming robots makes perfect ethical and fiscal sense. Robots are designed to do human work. They usually cobot alongside humans, and as Facebooks Chief AI Scientist, Yann LeCun, has pointed out, were not going to have a ton of intelligence without emotions anyway. Its even comforting to think that consumers are paying to control the programming direction of AI with their needs and wants and businesses should heed that call. Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and other major tech companies have already begun, and McKinsey reports that the number of jobs related to developing and deploying new technologies, including AI- and automation-related jobs, will grow to 20 to 50 million globally by 2030.

Have no fear. By tooling AI with high EQ under the same rules that have been prescribed in ethics and wartime, AI and robotics products will sell better, because they will coalesce with human wants and needs. Its an approach that my business associates and I take and I think all business leaders should adopt as well.

Asimov And Aristotle

Coupling Isaac Asimovs Laws of Robotics with Aristotles virtue ethics builds a rational foundation for AI and robotic behavior. Asimovs three laws state that robots must not injure but aid humans, must obey human directives that don't conflict with the first law and must protect themselves, except when doing so conflicts with the first two laws. Virtue ethics is Aristotles ethical system of emphasizing and exercising the classic virtues. Its the first normative system of ethics established and exercised continuously in the West and is still taught in university courses today.

Whether AI is programmed to mine data for commerce or robots are developed for military use, if the products arent solely manufactured to aid, I believe they should expressly be forbidden.

The 2012 Directive

Like Hawking, deGrasse Tyson, Musk and Bezos, ex-Google engineer Laura Nolan also fears killer robots, and, like them, not without reason. Despite the Department of Defenses 2012 3000.09 Directive that established ethical navigation rules for autonomous and semi-autonomous systems, martial technology, in awful times, has destroyed lives. The directive states that vehicles shall be designed to allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force. Additionally, these cobotic vehicles can be used to select and crush targets with the exception of selecting humans as targets. Even though this is the mandate, we have seen mistakes, and the challenge of keeping the tech safe from cyberattacks will always be paramount.

Nolan says, There could be large-scale accidents because these things will start to behave in unexpected ways, perhaps stoking the same robot self-awareness projection as Kaku. Nolan should place the directive at the heart of the campaign to block killer robots, and businesses can and should, together with Asimovs laws and Aristotles virtue ethics, use it as a foundation for programming. Doing so will help aid some of the practical and emotional needs the consumer nation is experiencing today.

The Robot Story

Understanding the robot story could help facilitate more confidence. Way before Norbert Wiener published his seminal book on cybernetics in 1948, the ancient imagination was already familiar with robots. In the 10th century B.C.E., artificer Yen Shih purportedly presented King Mu with an automaton, and Homer populated his tales with mythic automata servants that appeased the gods while cybernetic statues teased Athenians on their way to the agora. History reveals that robots are created with the singular purpose to assist humans, not replace or trounce them like they do in Blade Runner. If we keep one lens on history, we see that the reasons to furnish AI with EQ tech are organic.

AI platforms will keep entering the market, and all of them will seek to aid humanity, especially in areas with close robot-human contact. Nova reports American seniors will need 3.5 million additional healthcare workers by 2030. Given that one-on-one support is often unaffordable, robots may become suitable human replacements. Ironically, the demographic that is criticized the most for not embracing change will likely be the front-line adopters of robotic technology. Thus, the time to program AI applications with high EQs is now.

Prometheus created man. Victor Frankenstein created monster. The next fear is what the monster will create. At the shaky heart lies a phobia of change, but I believe automation unease will be eclipsed by the assets of AI and robotics. Value is the marauder of unctuous fears. DXC Technology reports, Using robotics enables us to spend more time on value-adding activity for our clients, rather than data entry and manipulation. Robotics saves. If AI and robotics applications mirror human needs and are built with EQ steeped in ethics, these inevitable machines could scale faster and maybe even help save the world rather than destroy it.

Link:

Can High-EQ Robots Save The World? - Forbes