“The Terminator” is clearly science fiction, but it speaks to a deep intuition that the robotization of warfare is a slippery slope—the endpoint of which can neither be predicted nor fully controlled. Two reports released soon after the November 2012 election have propelled the issue of autonomous killing machines onto the political radar.

A news article titled “Robots at War: Scholars Debate the Ethical Issues” includes comments by IEET Fellow Wendell Wallach, who is a scholar at Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics.

Full Story...

Robots for War - is it really ethical to use these terribly destructive creations, that the USA military is rapidly developing and deploying ?

Full Story...

After two days of serious neuroscience (Day One, Day Two morning, Day Two afternoon) I confess that my note-taking and summary abilities flagged a bit on the third day.

Full Story...

Day Two of the Moral Brain conference at New York University, co-sponsored by the IEET, is largely devoted to a review of the last ten years of research on the neuroscience of moral sentiments and decision-making, with talks by Paul Bloom among others.

Full Story...

In January, IEET Executive Director J. Hughes and IEET Fellow Wendell Wallach met with representatives of the Japanese Consortium on Applied Neuroscience (Japanese, English). They visited Trinity College as part of a national tour to meet with American neuroethicists.

Full Story...

Robots with even limited sensitivity to ethical considerations and the ability to factor those considerations into their choices and actions will open up new markets. However, if robots fail to adequately accommodate human laws and values in their behaviour, there will be demands for regulations that limit their use. Over the next twenty years, advances in robotics will converge with neurotechnologies and other emerging technologies. We will be confronted with not just monitoring and managing individual technologies that are each developing rapidly, but also with the cultural transformations arising from the convergence of many technologies. Technological development can overheat or may even stagnate. The central role for ethics, law, and public policy in the development of robots and neurotechnologies will be in modulating their rate of development and deployment. Compromising safety, appropriate use, and responsibility is a ready formulation for inviting crises in which technology is complicit.

Full Story...

IEET Fellow Patrick Lin has co-edited a new volume, Robot Ethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics with thirty essays on different aspects on robot ethics, including contributions by IEET Executive Director James Hughes and IEET Fellow Wendell Wallach.

Full Story...

Wendell Wallach, a lecturer and consultant at Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics—and recently appointed as an IEET Fellow—has emerged as one of the leading voices on technology and ethics.

Full Story...

We are pleased to announce that Wendell Wallach has accepted an appointment as Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies for 2011.

Full Story...

These are the last three papers of the Center for Inquiry’s Transforming Humanity conference before Max Mehlman’s closing talk.

Full Story...