As robots change daily life and commerce, governments will also need to change in response to this new technological challenge. This paper examines the kinds of government institutions U.S. federal policy-makers will need to develop and implement policy for the revolution in robotics. (The institutions that will be established after the robot revolution to govern […]

Artificial intelligence and robots reach higher and higher capacity levels every year and are increasingly prevalent. Robots are already heavily used in industrial settings, but increasingly also in healthcare, for service tasks, and in households. Social robots register our habits and attitudes, affecting our sense of intimacy, privacy, bonding and emotional support. Studies in the […]

“Robots again.” Thus begins Judge Alex Kozinski’s 1997 dissent from the Ninth Circuit’s decision not to rehear the case of Wendt v. Host International en banc. “Robots” because Wendt involved an allegation by the actors who played Cliff and Norm on the television show Cheers that a bar violated their rights of publicity by creating […]

This paper looks at recent changes in the (1) regulatory; (2) privacy and data protection landscape and (3) liability areas. Examples of developments affecting the connected car / intelligent car market in 2015 include: 1 – Regulatory Issues USA California, District of Columbia, Florida, Michigan, and Nevada have laws that allow the use of the […]

Fully autonomous or “self-driving” automobiles are vehicles “which can drive themselves without human supervision or input.” Because of improvements in driving safety and efficiency, fully autonomous vehicles are likely to become an increasing presence in our physical environment in the 5–15 year time frame. An important point is that, for the first time, people will […]

The ethics and governance of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS)—robots that can kill without direct human intervention or oversight—are the subject of active international discussions. It is imperative that we critically examine the role and nature of public engagement intended to inform decision makers. The Martens Clause, included in the additional protocols of the Geneva […]

This paper introduces the emerging subfield of privacy-sensitive robotics. It contains two in-depth surveys, one of the concept of privacy and one of robotics techniques that could be used for privacy protection. The survey of privacy begins with definitions, then outlines the history of privacy in philosophy and U.S. law. Next, an array of studies […]

A prevailing rhetoric in human-robot interaction is that automated systems will help humans do their jobs better. Robots will not replace humans, but rather work alongside and supplement human work. Even when most of a system will be automated, the concept of keeping a “human in the loop” assures that human judgment will always be […]