Robotic ethics

BBC News reports on an ethical code for robots:

An ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa, is being drawn up by South Korea.

The Robot Ethics Charter will cover standards for users and manufacturers and will be released later in 2007.

...

The new guidelines could reflect the three laws of robotics* put forward by author Isaac Asimov in his short story Runaround in 1942, she said.

Key considerations would include ensuring human control over robots, protecting data acquired by robots and preventing illegal use.

So far, so sensible. Asimov really was a visionary. But read on...

Other bodies are also thinking about the robotic future. Last year a UK government study predicted that in the next 50 years robots could demand the same rights as human beings.

Now that's just silliness from the Artificial Intelligence brigade. They're just soulless, unconscious heaps of tin, for chrisakes! The robots, I mean. Let's not get lost in this hall of mirrors.

*Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics (via Wikipedia):

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Seem to make pretty good sense, right? But then again, Asimov explored in "I, Robot" how these laws could lead a robot to harm an individual human in order to safeguard other people's safety. Robots are, after all, known for their lack of compassion or common sense...