With Clear Intention—An Ethical Responsibility Model for Robot Governance

There is much discussion about super artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous machine learning (ML) systems, or learning machines (LM). Yet, the reality of thinking robotics still seems far on the horizon. It is one thing to define AI in light of human intelligence, citing the remoteness between ML and human intelligence, but another to understand issues of ethics, responsibility, and accountability in relation to the behavior of autonomous robotic systems within a human society. Due to the apparent gap between a society in which autonomous robots are a reality and present-day reality, many of the efforts placed on establishing robotic governance, and indeed, robot law fall outside the fields of valid scientific research. Work within this area has concentrated on manifestos, special interest groups and popular culture. This article takes a cognitive scientific perspective toward characterizing the nature of what true LMs would entail—i.e., intentionality and consciousness. It then proposes the Ethical Responsibility Model for Robot Governance (ER-RoboGov) as an initial platform or first iteration of a model for robot governance that takes the standpoint of LMs being conscious entities. The article utilizes past AI governance model research to map out the key factors of governance from the perspective of autonomous machine learning systems.