Robotics, AI, and humanity: science, ethics, and policy

This open access book examines recent advances in how artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have elicited widespread debate over their benefits and drawbacks for humanity. The emergent technologies have for instance implications within medicine and health care, employment, transport, manufacturing, agriculture, and armed conflict. While there has been considerable attention devoted to robotics/AI applications in each of these domains, a fuller picture of their connections and the possible consequences for our shared humanity seems needed. This volume covers multidisciplinary research, examines current research frontiers in AI/robotics and likely impacts on societal well-being, human - robot relationships, as well as the opportunities and risks for sustainable development and peace. The attendant ethical and religious dimensions of these technologies are addressed and implications for regulatory policies on the use and future development of AI/robotics technologies are elaborated.

1. Introduction, overview and cross cutting conclusions -- SECTION I) FOUNDATIONAL ISSUES IN AI AND ROBOTICS -- 2. Could a robot be conscious? Lessons from philosophy -- 3. Could a robot be conscious? Lessons from the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness -- 4. Differences between Natural and Artificial Cognitive Systems -- 5. Foundations of artificial intelligence and effective universal induction -- SECTION II) AI AND ROBOTICS CHANGING THE FUTURE OF SOCIETY (WORK, FARMING, SERVICES AND POVERTY) -- 6. Robotics and the global organization of production -- 7. AI/robotics implications for poverty and marginalization -- 8. Robotics for sustainable Crop Production -- 9. Robotics and AI for food security and innovation -- 10. Robotics in the classroom. Hopes or threats? -- SECTION III) ROBOTICS, AI, AND MILITARIZED CONFLICT -- 11. Designing robots for the battlefield: state of the art -- 12. Military applications of AI and the relevance of virtue ethics -- 13. The use of AI in cyber war: ethical and regulatory challenges -- 14. AI Winter or AI that Saves the World? -- AI and nuclear deterrence -- SECTION IV) AI/ROBOT -- HUMAN INTERACTIONS: REGULATORY AND ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS -- 15. C…