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Article published In:
Interaction Studies
Vol. 18:2 (2017) ► pp.174–190

The ethics of robotic caregivers

| The George Washington University |
| Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence |
As Artificial Intelligence technology seems poised for a major take-off and changing societal dynamics are creating a high demand for caregivers for elders, children, and those infirmed, robotic caregivers may well be used much more often. This article examines the ethical concerns raised by the use of AI caregivers and concludes that many of these concerns are avoided when AI caregivers operate as partners rather than substitutes. Furthermore, most of the remaining concerns are minor and are faced by human caregivers as well. Nonetheless, because AI caregivers’ systems are learning systems, an AI caregiver could stray from its initial guidelines. Therefore, subjecting AI caregivers to an AI-based oversight system is proposed to ensure that their actions remain both legal and ethical.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, caregivers, human-machine interaction, machine ethics
Article outline
  • 1.The demand for humanoid robots
  • 2.Challenges
  • 3.Introducing AI caregivers
  • 4.Substitute vs partner?
  • 5.Goal vs comparative evaluation
  • 6.Team work
  • 7.AI caregivers need supervision – like humans
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 8 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/is.18.2.02etz
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