Panel Four - Praise and Blame: Moral Agency and the Ambiguity of Accountability in Robotics
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Authors
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2012-01-26
Date
2012-01-26
Publisher
Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School
Language
en_US
Abstract
When military personnel perform in an exemplary manner, they are normally recognized. By contrast, when they do not perform appropriately,
in a timely manner, or with full effort, personal
consequences may result. If not always in perfect
symmetry, a relationship exists between obligation
and performance, responsibility and accountability. When a piece of equipment fails,
unless it is the result of negligence, we do not
ordinarily hold the user responsible. Radar and
satellite surveillance are critical tools but things do break and systems fatigue over time.
Lessons are learned; engineers design efficient
redundancy and greater resiliency into the next
iteration. But radar and satellites, while highly
complex, represent a different order of technology
than the prospect of semi- and fully-‐autonomous
robots. As autonomy increases, questions of responsibility and accountability become more ambiguous. Regarding utilization of robotic
technology, how is accountability best assigned?
And how should we think about the relationship
between technical capabilities and tactical
choices with respect to command and control
and responsibilities attached to both?
Type
Presentation
Description
Panel Four of the Robo-ethics: Rhetoric vs. Reality Symposium for the Warfighter
Series/Report No
Department
Organization
Consortium for Robotics and Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
U.S. Pentagon
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Citation
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.