Keynote: Professor Noel Sharkey

Abstract

Although robots and robot fantasies have existed in some form for over two millennia, we are only beginning to see their predicted benefits come to fruition in our world of rapidly developing cheap technologies. Robots are now entering our homes for domestic service; they are harvesting our fruit, making our cars, milking our cows, performing surgery, and nursing us. Yet despite the long lead in, we are surprisingly unprepared for the consequences. No proper guidelines have been set in place for the influx of autonomous machines. Governments have been more concerned with issues such as the possibility of robots having legal rights than with the pressing ethical problem on our doorsteps. Work has already begun on robot carers for our aging populations and for minding our children. More worryingly, robots are integral to the US $230bn future combat systems project, a massive plan to develop unmanned vehicles that can strike from the air, under the sea and on land. South Korea and Israel are deploying armed robot border guards and China, Singapore and the UK are among those making increasing use of military robots. Uglier yet, the military technologies are coming back to haunt civilian world with increased use in policing and surveillance. This talk aims to provoke wider discussion of the new developments and their ethical implications.

Bibliography

Noel Sharkey is a Professor of AI and Robotics and Professor of Public Engagement at the University of Sheffield (Department of Computer Science) and EPSRC Senior Media Fellow (2004-2009). He has held a number of research and teaching positions in the UK (Essex, Exeter, and Sheffield) and the USA (Yale, Stanford, and Berkeley). Noel has moved freely across academic disciplines, lecturing in departments of engineering, philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, artificial intelligence and computer science. He holds a Doctorate in Experimental Psychology and an honorary Doctorate of Science. He is a chartered electrical engineer, a chartered information technology professional, a Fellow of The Royal Institution of Navigation (FRIN), the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, manufactures and commerce (FRSA), the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET), the British Computer Society (FBCS), is a member of both the Experimental Psychology Society and Association of Psychological Science and a member of Equity (the actor's union). He has published over a hundred academic articles and books as well as articles and web chats for BBC web pages and regular magazine articles. In addition to editing several journal special issues on modern robotics, Noel is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Connection Science and an editor of both Robotics and Autonomous Systems and Artificial Intelligence Review. His main research interests are now in Biologically Inspired Robotics, Cognitive Processes, history of automata (from ancient times to present), Human-Robot interaction and communication, Representations of Emotion and Machine learning.

Noel appears regularly on TV (280+ appearances) and is interviewed regularly on radio, in magazines and newspapers. He was chief judge for every series of "Robot Wars" throughout the world as well as "techspert" for four series of "TechnoGames". He has been on lecture tours of India, China, Egypt, Australia and Singapore. He has had large scale museum exhibitions at Magna Science Adventure Centre and Think Tank galleries in Birmingham. Noel also runs robot control and construction competitions for children and young adults (so far from 26 countries). He worked on the development of a number of mechanical art installations, "The Peeps", for the regeneration of the Ancoats region of Manchester with artist/architect Dan Dubowitz. Noel currently co-presents "Bright Sparks" for BBC N. Ireland-a family Science, Engineering and Technology Programme.

With a Senior Media Fellowship from the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (2004-2009), Noel is able to spend more time on his passion for engaging the public in debate and discussions about engineering, science and technology (SET) in combination with the arts. He is currently involved in initiating public discussion about the ethical use of robots and the implications for public safety and human rights.

"This has become a passion for me. There is a cultural mythology about robots fed by media, governments and scientists alike. The thinking robot is still only a fairytale. Behind the zoomophic dream of robot companions and helpers there are some real dangers that we may soon have to face. We need proper informed public debate about the rise of robot elderly carers, child minders, nurses, soldiers and police and about setting limits on mobile robot surveillance. These are not super-intelligent robots. They are dumb automatic machines and we must decide what we want from them before we dehumanize ourselves further."

See his Saturday Guardian piece: Robot Wars in Reality on the military use of robotics.

See further information on "Bright Sparks", Noel's BBC TV programme.