At the world's largest technology event, discussions about the role of robots at the frontier of relations between people and increasingly less inanimate beings took center stage.
Four days in Portugal, seeing and hearing the latest at WebSummit, the world's largest technology event, with 60,000 participants from more than 170 countries, covering everything that is already part of our present and, above all, what will shape the future. Among everything on display, one topic caught my attention more than any other: Is there a limit to how we use robots? Are we witnessing the beginning of a new era of machine slavery? Do machines have rights? Can they evolve to the point of having feelings?
If we rush to answer these questions without analyzing the full context, we risk giving the simplest answer, which is not always the correct one. The topic is complex, goes beyond the use of machines, and is more about how humans will be affected by this new robotic era. In his presentation, Brian Krzanich, president of Intel, stated that it is still too early to regulate Artificial Intelligence, as it is still in its infancy, but he also believes it will change the future and that data will become "one of the most valuable commodities on the planet".
I have a robot at home myself and plan to invest more and more in this area. My robot cleans the entire floor of the house and can make autonomous decisions, such as going to recharge its battery on its own before finishing the job. But the generation of robots causing the greatest sensation are humanoid robots that, as the name suggests, resemble humans. 2 years ago I met Sophia, a robot created by Ben Goertzel, a Brazilian based in the US, and I was very impressed by her capacity for expression and dialogue. I was able to see her again at WebSummit 2017, and she is even more capable of holding conversations, looking at whoever is speaking with her, and reacting with a full range of facial expressions while discussing the most varied topics. It is almost unsettling. When she was asked whether it is true that robots intend to annihilate humanity, she was candid and said they want to do good things alongside humans, but that robots will take some jobs.
If robots already interpret us, react, converse, and walk, what else is missing before they are part of society as if they were one of us? Apparently, very little. Sophia has just been recognized as a citizen in Saudi Arabia. But while technology enthusiasts see this as a milestone in the relationship between robots and humans, there is already a strong movement against all of this, including criticism of the fact that a humanoid has greater rights than the women of Saudi Arabia itself. There are those who argue that this recognition further erodes women's rights and that they would increasingly be seen as servants, as slaves, just like machines.
I attended the intense (and packed) debate between Goertzel and Kathleen Richardson, a professor of Ethics and Culture of Robots and Artificial Intelligence. The discussion moved toward the topic of sex robots, which are already being developed by 5 companies in the world and are intended to replace humans in sexual relationships. Goertzel sees no harm in this, since everyone would have the right to explore their fantasies and fulfill them without needing to involve another human. "If the robot does not have a sense of consciousness like the one people have, and even if it is hurt by a person, I see no need for the Government to prevent a man or woman from having sex with it," the scientist argues.
On the other side, Kathleen believes that sex robots will be the final blow to a society that is already ailing and increasingly struggles with social interaction. "We have reached a point in our society where we cannot say what is or is not misogynistic. Because there are many men out there who continue to think: after all, what are women for? And if we women truly want equal rights, we must refuse an industry where our humanity is not recognized," the professor argued. In her view, the social crisis of growing distance between individuals brought on by social media technology will become even more severe if even intimate and sexual matters are consumed in the cloud and shared only with robots.
But the discussion is even broader. It is not only about the rights of robots or whether they will change how we act among ourselves. There are even more pressing issues to discuss, such as our own safety.
At WebSummit, SingularityNET was launched, a global artificial intelligence network that will be used to spread the knowledge acquired by all devices and replicate it in any robot or application that needs it. Once again, technology enthusiasts were excited by the news, as this will allow for enormous advances in the process of expanding the functions and knowledge of all robots in the world.
But this opens the door to another major concern. If robots are going to invade our homes, be put to work on household tasks, serve as our personal assistants, and even as possible companions, it seems reasonable that they will also be assigned to keep the elderly company, care for our pets, and even look after our children. Robots, however, are programmed machines that can be interfered with and attacked by malicious code, causing them to be used for crimes such as home robberies, pedophilia, and even murder. This may seem far too dire and even unlikely to happen, but we cannot forget recent cases of internet-connected dolls that were hacked to transmit children's conversations, exposing their privacy online.
After all of this, I will look at the robot in my home with a degree of suspicion. While it cleans the entire floor, it also maps every room in my house and knows its dimensions, exactly where the doors are, and even the obstacles along the way. It already knows too much about me and my family. If I start to become paranoid about this, I will end up agreeing that robots will change the way we do things, but above all they will change the way we relate to them going forward.
There is a long road ahead in technology, but it is time to look more carefully at the legislation and agreements that will govern this relationship, to protect us from ourselves in the indiscriminate use of robotics, and to preserve our human connections.
