Ethical regulations on robotics in Europe

Abstract There are only a few ethical regulations that deal explicitly with robots, in contrast to a vast number of regulations, which may be applied. We will focus on ethical issues with regard to ‘‘responsibility and autonomous robots’’, ‘‘machines as a replacement for humans’’, and ‘‘tele-presence’’. Furthermore we will examine examples from special fields of application (medicine and healthcare, armed forces, and entertainment). We do not claim to present a complete list of ethical issue nor of regulations in the field of robotics, but we will demonstrate that there are legal challenges with regard to these issues.

The full paper by Michael Nagenborg, Rafael Capurro, Jutta Weber, and Christoph is published in AI & Society and available here.