News But Not New.

In “I, Robot”, the concept of A.I. morality was the main theme and made us question the decision making process of a “thinking machine” when put in a life or death situation. Remember “The Three Laws”? Starting with the first law of robotics: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Most people aren’t aware that these rules were written in 1942 by Isaac Asimov in his book I, Robot.

Fiction Forms Fact:

Introducing 3rd Eye Vision Robotics!

The same way gene manipulation has become an everyday reality, strides in A.I. ethics have been making scientific headway for years, whether we were aware of it or not. In August, 2014, Professor Alan Winfield wrote about his team’s latest breakthrough in “Internal Model” (or as I like to call it, “3rd Eye Vision”) Robotics, which basically consists of robots with a simulation of themselves and their environment inside themselves.

So just let that sink in for a second…
 
Wait, what the… really???
 
Yeah Ray, wake up, this was soo last year…

Anyways, so they have robots with a “real-time consequence engine”. With this “engine”, the robot can internalize and therefor “foresee” the consequences of it’s own actions, AND the actions of others in it’s environment. To take it a step further they added an ethical rule, not unlike Asimov’s 1st rule, and put the robots to a moral test.

Here’s the scenario:

A robot is heading towards a hole. There is a human heading towards the hole also. The robot doesn’t want to collide with the human, but by doing so, maybe it can save her from falling in the hole and reach it’s destination safely. This is a real-time event that takes a split-second decision, but it also takes time to calculate the best choice.

Nah that’s too easy. Let’s make it two humans! Again you have to see this to really get it. Be sure to check out the full article, Towards an Ethical Robot on Professor Winfield’s blog. Below is a video showing some choices made by a robot with 3rd Eye Vision!

I will admit to not being up to date on a lot of current affairs so to me this is something fascinating and like really far-out. Is it just me that missed the boat on this technology or what? I am really interested to hear what people have to say about this one…

Peace!

Couple in Futuristic Flying Car Bumpin Night Rider by XRAYi!

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