This book explores how robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance human lives but also have unsettling “dark sides.” It examines expanding forms of negativity and anxiety about robots, AI, and autonomous vehicles as our human environments are reengineered for intelligent military and security systems and for optimal workplace and domestic operations. It focuses on the impacts of initiatives to make robot interactions more humanlike and less creepy (as with domestic and sex robots). It analyzes the emerging resistances against these entities in the wake of omnipresent AI applications (such as “killer robots” and ubiquitous surveillance). It unpacks efforts by developers to have ethical and social influences on robotics and AI, and confronts the AI hype that is designed to shield the entities from criticism. The book draws from science fiction, dramaturgical, ethical, and legal literatures as well as current research agendas of corporations. Engineers, implementers, and researchers have often encountered users' fears and aggressive actions against intelligent entities, especially in the wake of deaths of humans by robots and autonomous vehicles. The book is an invaluable resource for developers and researchers in the field, as well as curious readers who want to play proactive roles in shaping future technologies.
Author(s): Jo Ann Oravec
Series: Social And Cultural Studies Of Robots And AI
Edition: 1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF
Pages: 291
Tags: Science And Technology Studies; Artificial Intelligence; Philosophy Of Science
Acknowledgements
Contents
1 Entering the Second Century of Robotics and Intelligent Technologies: An Opening Note
Who Might Benefit from This Book?
The Dark Side, Conspiracy, and Science Fiction
AI, CPSR, and the Sandbox
References
2 Dramaturgical and Ethical Approaches to the Dark Side: An Introduction
Dramaturgical Perspectives on Robots and AI
Acquiring a Taste for Creepiness?
Ruminating on the Prospects for Robots and Other AI Entities
Dissecting Robots: An Advisory About Potentially Upsetting Material
Some Conclusions and Reflections
An Apology in Advance to Humans
References
3 Negative Dimensions of Human-Robot and Human-AI Interactions: Frightening Legacies, Emerging Dysfunctions, and Creepiness
Good Robot, Bad Robot, Compulsory Robot
Robotic Environments: Factory Floor to Metaverse
Being “Outclassed” by Robotics, Autonomous Vehicles, and AI
Constructed Magical and Religious Dimensions of Robotics and AI
Creepiness and Potentials for Violence
Social Robotics: Bridging Humans, Robots, and AI
The “Brighter Side”?: Constructing Positive Aspects of Robotics
Robotics and AI Designers and Implementers: From Evil Geniuses to Doting Parents to Protesters
Robot Failures, Orphans, and “Robotic Winters”
Some Conclusions and Reflections
References
4 Love, Sex, and Robots: Technological Shaping of Intimate Relationships
Some Historical Insights on Technosex
Sexual and Marriage Unions with Robots: The Singularity and Sexual Imagery
Dark Sides of Human–Robot Sexual and Romantic Communion
Taking Sex Robots Seriously
Critiques of Sex Robots
Commodification and Addiction Concerns
The “New Pygmalion”: Perspectives on Designer Sexuality
Some Conclusions and Reflections: The Dark Sides of Human–Robot Communion
References
5 The Long Robotic Arm of the Law: Emerging Police, Military, Militia, Security, and Other Compulsory Robots
Micro-level Control of Humans with Police and Security Robotics
The Dynamics of Fear Amplification
Control of Humans by Robots and Autonomous Entities
International Responses to Autonomous Military and Security System Prospects
Compulsory Robotics, Quartering, and the Third Amendment
Science Fiction and AI-Enhanced Warfare and Control Systems
Some Conclusions and Reflections
A Follow-Up: Deep Dive into the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) of the 1980s and 1990s
References
6 Gilding Artificial Lilies: Artificial Intelligence’s Legacies of Technological Overstatement, Embellishment, and Hyperbole
Technological Overstatement and Hyperbole
AI in Historical Perspective
Characterizing Artificial Intelligence
Examples of Success- and Failure-Related AI Narratives
Expanding the Dimensions of Corporate Responsibility for AI: A “Robot Tax”?
Conclusions and Reflections
References
7 “Our Hearts Go Out to the Victim’s Family”: Death by Robot and Autonomous Vehicle
A Sad Compendium of Deaths by Robots and Autonomous Entities
Historical and Social Perspectives on Robot- and AI-Involved Deaths
Robots as Artificial “Others” and “Thinking Machines”
Design and Implementation Issues Involving Robotics
Human–Robot Collaboration Models for Safety
Some Future Directions for Human–Robot-AI Interaction
Some Conclusions and Reflections
References
8 Robo-Rage Against the Machine: Abuse, Sabotage, and Bullying of Robots and Autonomous Vehicles
Mistreatment of Technologies in Everyday Workplace and Community Settings
Aggressive Anti-Robot Activity as Response to Symbolic Violence
Evolving Characterizations of Robots and Thinking Machines
Varieties of Aggressive Behavior Involving Autonomous Entities
Mitigation Efforts for Anti-Robot and Autonomous Entity Abuse
Dystopian Futures for Robots and AI Entities: Demonizing and Weaponizing
Some Conclusions and Reflections
References
9 The Future of Embodied AI: Containing and Mitigating the Dark and Creepy Sides of Robotics, Autonomous Vehicles, and AI
Protecting Mental, and Physical Integrity
Projecting Utopian and Dystopian Scenarios
Issues with the Opportunistic Use of the Dark Side
Robotic Advocacy: Promoting and Defending Robots and AI
Establishing Open Communication About Robots and AI
Development of Proactive Initiatives and Ethical Principles Concerning Robotics and AI
Beyond the Dark and Creepy: Some Conclusions and Reflections
References
Index
