Abstract
SummarySocial robots that can interact and communicate with people are growing in popularity for use at home and in customer-service, education, and healthcare settings. Although growing evidence suggests that co-operative and emotionally aligned social robots could benefit users across the lifespan, controversy continues about the ethical implications of these devices and their potential harms. In this perspective, we explore this balance between benefit and risk through the lens of human-robot relationships. We review the definitions and purposes of social robots, explore their philosophical and psychological status, and relate research on human-human and human-animal relationships to the emerging literature on human-robot relationships. Advocating a relational rather than essentialist view, we consider the balance of benefits and harms that can arise from different types of relationship with social robots and conclude by considering the role of researchers in understanding the ethical and societal impacts of social robotics.
Highlights
Social robots, defined as robots that interact and communicate with humans or other agents by exhibiting social behaviors and following norms, have exploded in popularity in recent years, with a rapid growth in the development of research prototypes and in the commercialization of devices
Well-known examples of social robots, illustrated in Figure 1, include Hanson Robotics’ Sophia, a human-like robot that captured the media’s attention in 2017 when it was granted ‘‘honorary citizen’’ status in Saudi Arabia (Pagallo, 2018), and Softbank’s Pepper (Pandey and Gelin, 2018) and Nao (Gouaillier et al, 2009), two widely available humanoid robots used in research across various disciplines and for commercial applications in customer assistance and education
Non-humanoid robots include animal-like solutions such as Sony’s playful robotic dog Aibo (Fujita, 2000), the seal-like Paro, developed to have a calming effect on residents of long-term care facilities (Shibata and Wada, 2011), and Miro-e, a bioinspired robot developed for applications in education and therapy (Prescott et al, 2018)
Summary
Social robots, defined as robots that interact and communicate with humans or other agents by exhibiting social behaviors and following norms, have exploded in popularity in recent years, with a rapid growth in the development of research prototypes and in the commercialization of devices. Social robots clearly belong to the class of designed machines; their ability to exhibit behaviors previously manifested only in living systems, and closely tied to human sociality and culture, places them near to category boundaries, challenging pre-existing definitions and distinctions (Kang, 2011; Prescott, 2017).
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