Story
Year 2070:
For the past three years Marissa’s family has been the proud owners of a HouseMaster+ robot, Billy . This household robot won’t only clean your house but also orders groceries, cooks, and does your scheduling, everything to help make your home life smooth and relaxing. Billy made Marissa’s homelife much smoother, helping to prepare meals, taking care of the kids, and even suggested the best Christmas presents; he became part of the family.
The big story on the news today is that the company that produces the HouseMaster series robots, BetterLyfe, has been storing all the information the HouseMaster robots have been collecting in order to better market items and services from other BetterLyfe franchises to the robots’ owners.
The public seems to have two reactions: outrage at that the company collected and used the customers private information for monetary gain, or others believe that as long as the information wasn’t distributed to other companies and organizations the breach of privacy was somewhat minor. Seeing this unfold Marrisa’s family doesn’t know how to react, but they don’t like the idea of being monitored. For now they shut down Billy until they make a decision. Her 2 year old, having spent most of their life playing and bonding with Billy, cries as the robot is placed in the garage lifeless.
The coming week is filled with unforeseen obstacles for Marissa’s family. Marissa herself is noticing how little time there is in the day having to cook, clean, and keep track of everything alone. She is only barely able to finish the kid’s lunches before school the first few days, and is late to a meeting because she lost track of time cleaning the house. Needless to say it seems Marissa and her family have grown dependent on Billy over the last few years. The family now goes forward trying to decide if they will continue to use Billy, or shop around for other similar domestic robots on the market.
What are Domestic Robots?
Domestic, or household, robots are autonomous robots used to make homelife run smoother by completing chores and other mundane tasks. Current domestic robots, like Roombas, are specialized to complete a specific task and are confined by factors like movement, size, and the current complexity of automated technology. As the field develops we will likely start to see more domestic robots like Honda’s Asimo robot, a humanoid generalized robot that can interact with owners as well as complete almost any household chore.
Discussion Questions
Click the + on the right of a question to view related perspectives and potential starting points for considering these ethical concerns.
What are the moral implications of the privacy breach committed by BetterLyfe? [1, 6]
- “The need for such considerations is clear: future robots in the home could introduce new or amplify existing security and privacy risks for homeowners and other occupants. In many cases it may not be obvious how to overcome these security and privacy risks.” [1]
- “We may not know much about how domestic robots of the future will be designed, but one thing is certain: security, safety, and privacy will not be thrown in as afterthoughts.” [6]
Will people form emotional connections with domestic robots like Marrisa’s youngest child? [5, 8]
- “The acceptability of robotic devices in home settings… does not depend only on the practical benefits they can provide, but on complex relationships between the cognitive, affective and emotional components of people’s images of robots” [5]
- “We propose that users will perceive domestic robots as a new kind of entity.” [8]
What will happen as humans become increasingly reliant on robots to do what we consider to be easy and essential tasks?
- “Many Americans are not equipped to earn their living in a future society where all the routine tasks are automated. That’s going to be a big, big problem. But it is ultimately solvable by raising our educational standards.” [14]
How will our privacy be affected as domestic robots become more complex? [4]
- “The idea of a smart watch that lets you keep an eye on your children might sound like something a security-conscious parent would like: a smart watch that can be hacked to track children, listen in on their surroundings, and even fool them into thinking a call is coming from their parents is the stuff of nightmares.” [4]
If a domestic robot like Billy were to malfunction and injure someone, who would be held responsible? [13]
- “Such claims may arise from tort law or from special laws like road traffic acts, product liability regulation, or anti-discrimination laws, if the AI application derives discriminatory consequences from the data it uses. In addition, liability can of course also be the result of the contractual relations between the injured party and one of the other parties involved.” [13]
Should domestic robots ever be allowed to care for children unsupervised or otherwise? [11, 12]
- “Robot-Assisted Therapy (RAT) has successfully been used to improve social skills in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) through remote control of the robot in so-called Wizard of Oz (WoZ) paradigms.” [11]
- “…it has become increasingly apparent that social and interactive skills are necessary requirements in many application areas and contexts where robots need to interact and collaborate with other robots or humans.” [12]
How will domestic robots change how we interact with and control technology? [8]
- “The TPB model points to the importance of perceived behavioral control in forming opinions about technology such as users believing they can control when and how technology operates, how adopting such a technology affect their social status, and all other factors of concern. TAM narrows these criteria and places emphasis on the perceived ease of use.” [8]
Themes
(Primary) Accountability, Safety and Security
(Secondary) Transparency and Explainability, Anthropomorphization
Resources
- Denning, Tamara, et al. “A Spotlight on Security and Privacy Risks with Future Household Robots: Attacks and Lessons.” A Spotlight on Security and Privacy Risks with Future Household Robots | Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, 1 Sept. 2009, dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1620545.1620564?casa_token=1-55qRgrYFUAAAAA:ZdRl4ukMkI6kmqEJga3sDo8lz8XkXV-1Cj_cHWVU9pAovdj7XrXxOTemGTT0wjq-5e9l_jAk5_L0dw.
- Fiorini, Paolo, and Erwin Prassler. “Cleaning and Household Robots: A Technology Survey.” Autonomous Robots, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dec. 2000, link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1008954632763.
- Forsdick, Sam. “Six Household Robots That Could Make Chores a Thing of the Past.” NS Business, 17 July 2019, www.ns-businesshub.com/technology/household-robots/.
- Hornigold, Thomas. “The Promise-and Complications-of Domestic Robots.” Singularity Hub, 6 Dec. 2018, singularityhub.com/2018/12/06/the-promise-and-complications-of-domestic-robots/.
- Scopelliti, Massimiliano, et al. “Robots in a Domestic Setting: a Psychological Approach.” Universal Access in the Information Society, Springer-Verlag, 19 July 2005, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10209-005-0118-1.
- Shirakyan, Greg. “What Is a Household Robot?” IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News, 13 Dec. 2011, spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/home-robots/what-is-a-household-robot.
- Vincent, James. “Robot Butlers Operated by Remote Workers Are Coming to Do Your Chores.” The Verge, The Verge, 9 May 2019, www.theverge.com/2019/5/9/18538020/home-robot-butler-telepresence-ugo-mira-robotics.
- Young, James E., et al. “Toward Acceptable Domestic Robots: Applying Insights from Social Psychology.” Int J Soc Robot, 28 Oct. 2008, Young2008_Article_TowardAcceptableDomesticRobots.pdf.
- Prassler E., Kosuge K. (2008) Domestic Robotics. In: Siciliano B., Khatib O. (eds) Springer Handbook of Robotics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-30301-5_55
- Smarr, CA., Mitzner, T.L., Beer, J.M. et al. Domestic Robots for Older Adults: Attitudes, Preferences, and Potential. Int J of Soc Robotics 6, 229–247 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-013-0220-0
- Esteban, Pablo G., et al. “How to Build a Supervised Autonomous System for Robot-Enhanced Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” De Gruyter, De Gruyter Open, 25 Apr. 2017, www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/pjbr-2017-0002/html.
- Dautenhahn, Kerstin. “Socially Intelligent Robots: Dimensions of Human–Robot Interaction.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 13 Feb. 2007, royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2006.2004.
- Ebert, Ina. “Who Is Liable When Robots Cause Damage?: Munich Re Topics Online.” Munichre.com, 9 Mar. 2020, www.munichre.com/topics-online/en/digitalisation/who-is-liable-when-robots-cause-damage.html.
- Thomas, Mike. “The Future of Robots and Robotics.” Built In, 20 Feb. 2020, builtin.com/robotics/future-robots-robotics.
- Honda. “Honda Global: ASIMO.” Honda Global | ASIMO, 2011, global.honda/innovation/robotics/ASIMO.html.
Image Credit
Creator: “UCSD CalIT2 – Alex Matthews”—https://www.calit2.net/people/staff_detail.php?id=133
Source: “From Caregivers to Hospital and Surgery Assistants: The Future of Healthcare Robotics”—https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/CRI_Forum_2018
License: “CC 3.0 – CalIT2, UC San Diego”—https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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