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Ethical Issues and Humanoid Robots

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ETHICS IN ENGINEERING Ethics is defined as the accepted rules of conduct in respect to different classes of human actions. In my opinion, ethics is imperative to the structure of engineering. It gives people the ability to function correctly in their own behavior and without it, mayhem will subsequently arise. As of lately, movies and novels has given the world a fictional future where the growth of artificial intelligence has bred a robot that could function as an advanced human being. Although that future is not coming to us any time soon, my engineering team and I at Honda in Japan are working rigorously to develop technologies for the progression of the humanoid robot. In engineering, there will always be issues or concerns that will cause questioning and therefore, the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) along with a host of other organizations have formulated codes of ethics for its members to follow. I, myself, have proceeded to reference these codes multiple times as the issue regarding ethics and the work that I do at Honda are always at crossroads. THE SCENARIO: SHOULD I GIVE OUT INFORMATION? ASIMO, the world’s most advanced humanoid robot developed by my engineering team at Honda, already has properties that prove it to be at the forefront of artificial intelligence [1]. While this technology is very advantageous as humanoid robots were meant to be tools for human application, many believe that robots who can think for themselves can cause harm to people. There are several organizations that have begun to use the humanoid robot for military purposes and have approached me for information regarding the technology in ASIMO in exchange for money. In particular, the US Department of Defense has asked me for crucial advice and information on the locomotives of the humanoid robot so that they could improve on their own military robot. I am now faced with multiple ethical issues as to whether or not I should give out Honda’s information. In a moral sense, I am confused as to whether or not giving out information that could possibly harm people is a good idea. These are the problems in engineering where I am at a crossroad and whatever choice I make will follow me for the rest of my life. ROBOTS IN COMBAT In the moral sense that humanoid robots are tools that can aid humans for everyday tasks, I believe that these robots are ethically tolerable. Whether the task is to walk the dog or manufacture a part, the humanoid robot was designed to support humans in their daily lives [2]. The fact that there are multiple groups of people that would love to get their hands on an advanced humanoid robot for destruction purposes has got me at crossroads in the ethical standpoint. With various types of drones and a continuing military presence in almost every location around the globe, this entity is looking for their next weapon to promote peace and harmony. That entity is the United States military. The US Department of Defense has always had an inclination for the integration between technology and weapons. I think this trend for advanced weaponry is both a good and bad thing. For example, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have proven to be effective for the military by collecting information and also eliminating possible threats in the Middle East ever since 1995. These drones are “equipped with sensitive camera and spying equipment that provides real-time reconnaissance or intelligence. It can be equipped with laser-guided missiles and bombs [3].” On the other hand, advance arms can potentially be harmful as they are incredibly powerful and can eliminate a lot of innocent people if used irresponsibly. DEAL BETWEEN ME AND THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE When the Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the US Department of Defense approached me last week at the Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics show, he formed a deal for me. The deal was very simple but it left me confused because of the ethical problems that trailed behind it. The only thing he wanted was information on the advanced technology that my team and I possessed on the locomotives for our robot, ASIMO. In exchange, I would receive a large sum of cash that was equal to $500,00. This humanoid, the world’s most intelligent robot, is comprised of a collection of highly adva

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