How the Development of Robots Will Change Our Lives - Essay Example

Research Paper Computer sciences and Information technology Autonomous Robots Institute We live in a world where the future can potentially mean that we have to rethink how we work, rest and play. Discuss how the development of autonomous robots will change our lives positively and negatively. 2) It should be evident by now that ‘autonomous robots’ is not the talk of a distant future. The start of the 21st century has already seen autonomous robots that sense and interpret a vast variety of sensory stimuli. Due to modern research the artificial attributes of intelligence like communicating, planning, learning with humans as well as among themselves are visible every day. The question remains what the future holds regarding artificial intelligence that is autonomous and able to communicate other systems as well as with humans? An immense amount of research is underway about autonomous robots. The researchers are eager to predict what the future would look like as it is evident from science fiction novels and Hollywood movies. Robots and artificial intelligence are technically different terms, but they are perceived as one. Czech Writer Karel Capek invented the term ‘robot’ derived from the word ‘robota’ meaning labour (Chen, David & Gligorescu, 2011). Artificial Intelligence is a term used to describe for machines that can mimic the intelligence of humans (Chen, David & Gligorescu, 2011). At the moment, many mobile robots and their applications are serving the humans. These robots include wheeled, flying, swimming, crawling and even legged robots. Humanoid robots that copy some aspects of human experiences or behaviour appear in the news now and then. It is considered the mid-stage between human and a robot (Huang, 2011). Moreover, group robotics that understand the ways in which single robots cooperate and communicate is also part of the recent research. Sensors actuators enabling to connect the world, robot intelligence, the software architecture of these machines, methods to control them and the application issues such as localization, navigation or grouping, are now a part of the modern technological culture. It is almost a cliché to presume that the artificial intelligence in the future would make a dramatic change and offer stunningly new developments for the humans. If the developments are gradual than probably we wont see much difference and will accept it as part of technological evolution. But this is a mystery, maybe the shift will be dramatic due to the courtesy of truly ground-breaking technology. Autonomous robots instil both hope and fear in the minds of humans. These robots use applications that can significantly contribute to human interests in the coming years. Simultaneously, there is a significant number of researchers that warn about using these robots. They fear that these autonomous robots carry a heavy price. There is no doubt that the machines are becoming smarter every day, and they are exhibiting this improvement through their skill and intelligence. Growth in artificial intelligence (AI) also means these machines can turn into a source of potential danger for humanity. Current trends This section discusses the current trends in the field and offers predictions of the likely future in the next decade. Entertainment Autonomous robots in entertainment are everywhere. One famous example of such a robot is AIBO, the robot dog. The prediction is that such entertaining robots will trigger a new wave of artificially intelligent creatures. These robot dogs will be available in different sizes and breeds. It is obvious that dogs will not be the only animal for researchers’ interest. They will also make robots after other animals like cats, monkeys, snakes and the likes. As the machines become smarter and more able to communicate at many levels with their owners, their entertainment value will only grow. It is only a matter of time that artificial robots with humanlike features such as life-size dolls will be available for people. People will talk with these dolls in their natural language. The current generation of these humanoid robots is almost guaranteed to make way for the newer generation of ‘almost human’ robots that will accompany people as playmates and friends. People will order customized robots according to their needs. Please see the appendix for the small timeline of robot technology history. Military enhancements One of the sternest applications of AI is in the military. Autonomous aircrafts such as drones, autonomous land vehicles like tanks and Humvees, and even submarines are almost ready for launching. The majority of these machines is primarily tele operated. In the future they might become completely autonomous where a drone would fly into the enemy territory using its camera to recognize features of buildings, seeking temperature through its heat sensors or any other significant sign to mark its target. After locking its target, it might release the missile from close range – seek and destroy. Autonomous robots are currently not in the first-hand military operations at the battlefield. These battle gears are mainly used for reconnaissance or in shipment and supplies. It will be a great leap forward if this technology is used to demine the minefields. This will save precious human lives. On the other hand, these robots will eventually end up in the battlefield equipped with lethal weapons. There will not be any fear of death or being injured in these robot soldiers. They will truly be the killing machines. Household Uses In the future, there will be immense commercial development and application of household robots. Currently, the IRobot Corporation in the US and the Swedish company Electrolux are already offering vacuum cleaning and lawn mowing robots. Further use of such machines would be in the security where these machines will be roaming inside company warehouses or building perimeters. Developments are underway in countries like Japan and Germany where the contribution of autonomous robots would lead to artificially intelligent machines for cleaning windows of skyscrapers, cleaning ships while it rests in the hull and robots washing passenger aircrafts. Maybe if this trend continues then people will see streetlights being cleaned and serviced by robots. All these thoughts might seem futuristic but with the modern trend towards this transition it is not impossible. It is only a matter of time we will see mail delivery robots. Assistance the disables and the elderly With the increase in the average lifespan there is a huge population of older people in the industrialized countries that need care. The cost of caring for them is growing enormously. It is also a huge market for developing robots that assist these people in their daily routines. These robots that help the elderly are being developed in Japan Italy, Great Britain, Germany and the United States. The primary target for developing these machines is their capability of being control through natural language or easy gestures. If the robots are taught to follow gestures or speech to fetch food items from the refrigerator, turning appliances on/off, and assisting with feeding, dressing and going to the toilet, will mean a life-changing experience for the elderly population. Special robots that assist people with unique disabilities would help them in many ways. The world has already seen the development of the "seeing eye dogs" that assist blind people. Maybe there will be robotic systems helping paraplegic people with walking. But the development in this niche requires a huge amount of time and research. They have to be almost 100% fool proof, easy to operate, affordable by the mass population and most importantly, they need the approval of the Healthcare and Elderly Care authorities. Human robot Communication So far the talks off developing new artificially intelligent robots that are capable of making decisions for themselves and helping humans hugely depends on the human robotic interaction. A program developed once and expected to serve the lifetime for a person, is almost unrealistic. Human needs change and a person requires customizable machine to assist him. Therefore, robots that can actually communicate with humans would be one of the major trends in the next decade. The major focus of robotic development so that they can actually get involved in the lifestyles is that they are safe for people to operate and work with. But the future generation robots will need a design that is impossible to harm people. The human robot interaction also known as HRI or Human Computer Interaction HCI will require major improvements (Bekey, 2005). Hence the future will need humans and robots communicating with each other through speech and natural language. Body positions and hand gestures could also help improve this communication. The idea is that the robots should be able to decide jointly on task allocation and should be able to teach other robots or humans about performing tasks. They can use the spoken instructions to them as graphical instructions for imitation. The Downside As with any form of technology, technology itself is not good or bad. Its use determines its negative or positive outcomes. In the case of artificial intelligence at a delicate task such as surgery or combat a malfunction could mean certain death of an innocent life. A robot cannot tell the difference between an ice cube and a glass cube through visions only, it will need heat sensors or texture recognition to do so (Chen, David & Gligorescu, 2011). According to a report released by Centre for New American Security (CNAS), intelligent militarized robots could soon be fighting in the national armies triggering an arms race (Khan, 2014). Hollywood has been making many movies based on the theme of killer robots for years. Headlines of major newspapers citing tragic incidents of machine errors is not unprecedented. It is one thing to put aside Hollywood movies in which robots are shown as killers saying that it is based on fiction only. One needs to look deeper about the possibilities of why there is a fascination by movie writers about ‘machine uprising’. If any researcher is asked about the possibility of such a thing happening then, the answers might not be very surprising because no one rules out the possibility of such a thing happening in the future. If a person from the 80s were told that in a few years’ time he will be able to control the air conditioning system of his home from a remote location, this would have shocked him. It was considered futuristic to see the video of the person that one is talking to over the phone. Nowadays video calling is everywhere. People do not even realize the transformation made in such a short amount of time. But with this modern technology there are downsides too. One of the first indications of rebellion of military robots were reported in October 2007 (Krishnan, 2013). A robot canon malfunctioned killing nine soldiers in South Africa (Krishnan, 2013). Obviously there were rebuttals that the canon was not artificially intelligent and that it was only a mechanical error that led to the death of nine people. Moreover in 2008 there were several reports of an armed ground robot making unintended actions in Iraq (Krishnan, 2013). Many military personnel came forward denying that the robot was acting out of its will turning against its masters. Introducing the idea of the machine uprising is usually ridiculed. It is considered a nonsense joke completely out of a science fiction movie that terminators will be roaming around in the streets. But anyone who is acutely aware of warfare and weapons currently being designed in the developed countries would never rule out this possibility. Plans are to launch robot soldiers that will have better range and the ability to carry out ‘suicidal missions’ without risking human lives (Khan, 2014). It is obvious that the human lives will only be saved on one side of the conflict while the other side might get butchered by these killer robots. Autonomous killer robots lethally armed might not exist or are not on the ground operating on their own. Even if they do they are mainly controlled. An unpiloted drone carrying missiles is an astounding example. The biggest fear of artificial intelligence is the loss of human control on robots. It depends on the amount of will that humans give to the robot. The robot having the ability of making life and death decisions in places of humans is a scary thought. The idea of lethal autonomous military robots is just the latest expression of a broader and disturbing trend in warfare. It marks the general decline of human decision-making. Currently there are only a handful of weapons systems that can be rightly termed autonomous. Wherever the use of force is evident in battlefield humans have the clear control and the decision-making power in it. However, the computer revolution of warfare has made unprecedented possibilities available for automation. Military networks and functions like logistics are already automated. The human decision makers have turned considerably dependent on the analysis that the computer models give them. Author of US Special Operations Forces in Action: The Challenge of Unconventional Warfare (1998) Thomas K. Adams is fearful that human in the loop could probably be removed gradually and soon everything will be controlled by computers (Krishnan, 2013). In that case, the most important question remains; will humans have the power to intervene in such automated systems? If they can intervene would they be able to control the model because an artificially intelligent computer can rewrite its program making it almost impenetrable. Abstract robots are considered to be capable of self-assembly (O’Grady, 2010). It is obvious that removing humans from the battlefield, and military decision-making will not happen overnight but through a gradual process there is a significant possibility of this happening. According to Ravi Mohan, initially the robots will engage in nonlethal activities like clearing minefields or I.E.D detection (Krishnan, 2013). Then they will accompany human combat units in the battlefield (Krishnan, 2013). As the robots get sophisticated, they might take up the all non-combatant operations. Patrolling perimeters and having the power to fire when provoked could seem like a probability the near future. And eventually the robot weapons would become an indispensable part of the battlefield just like normal human control machines. Some of the Pentagon officials and military robot designers have already suggested that once the technology becomes reliable the military robots could open fire without requiring human permission. The Virginia based Joint Forces Command researcher, Gordon Johnson, reported The New York Times in an interview that he has been frequently asked what will happen if the robots destroy a school bus rather than a tank in the same vicinity. His reply was that the military think tank will never interest a robot with such decisions unless they are confident that the robot fully capable in such circumstances (Krishnan, 2013). In other words, it means that in principle Pentagon is not opposing the idea of acquiring autonomous weapons (AW). The robot researcher, Ronald R King, at the Georgia Institute of technology also believes that deploying autonomous security systems inevitable (Krishnan, 2013). Ultimately, developing and deploying these weapons is certain and is almost in line with larger historical trends in the warfare. The purpose of drafting this paper is to give a neutral perspective on the future of autonomous artificial intelligence. When the nuclear energy was discovered, it was meant to find a cheap source of energy for running machines, and not to destroy cities and generations. Robot technology is not harmful, no matter how futuristic it might seem. Our job as humans is to prevent malfunctions and misuse of such intelligence. Human beings should be able to have the ultimate control on machines; they should be able to intervene. Robots do not have feelings; they cannot empathize. It is the job of humans to step into the system and make AI truly safe and useful for all. References Bekey, G. A. (2005) Autonomous robots: From biological inspiration to implementation and control. MIT Press. Chen, H. David, M. & Gligorescu, A. (2011) The influence of robots on human society. Roskilde Universitet; RUC. Semester Project. Retrieved October 31, 2014 http://rudar.ruc.dk/bitstream/1800/7219/1/Final%20Draft%20-%20group%207%20(2).pdf Huang, L. (2011) My final statement. Robot Controversies. Retrieved October 31, 2014 http://gtinfauto.wordpress.com/ Khan, M. (2014) Autonomous robots to fight wars with ‘suicidal missions’. International Business Times. Retrieved October 31, 2014 http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/autonomous-robots-fight-wars-suicidal-missions-1472021 Krishnan, A. (2013) Killer robots: Legality and ethicality of autonomous weapons. Ashgate Publishing. O’Grady, R., Groß, R., Christensen, A. L., & Dorigo, M. (2010). Self-assembly strategies in a group of autonomous mobile robots. Autonomous Robots, 28(4), 439-455. Appendix Robotic Achievements (Timeline) from 2001-2005 (taken from RobotShop.com website)1 Read More