The Nth Law

Any self-respecting nerd should be able to list off Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics -

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 any orders given to 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.

For bonus points, you should also be able to name the Zeroth Law, which supersedes those three, “A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”

But this idea of robot law is moving out of the realm of science fiction into the real world. And for good reason. As things stand, we could not possibly implement these laws of robotics. The technology, and artificial intelligence in particular, just isn’t there yet. I mean, we are years away from mapping neural nets as complex as a human brain. We still have challenges to create AIs that can communicate well enough to convince someone that s/he is chatting with another real person online. If we can’t get AIs to do that, how can we get them to judge danger, consequences, and ethics?

Yes, Predator drones and cruise missiles still have human operators for now. But soon, fully autonomous weapons will be a reality. And when Judgement Day comes, I will welcome a chance to defend SkyNet at the Hague.