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14 02/01/1920 06/04/1992 ISAAC ASIMOV “VIOLENCE IS THE LAST REFUGE OF THE INCOMPETENT” What are robots allowed to do? EVEN TECHNOLOGY NEEDS LAWS – Author Isaac Asimov and his guidelines for robots It will soon be a question we face every single day: Who is responsible if a Google driverless car crashes into another driverless car? It was more than 70 years ago that the first novel to give some answers to the question of what robots are allowed to do and what they’re not was published. The author was Isaac Asimov. He was born on 2 January 1920 in Petrovichi, Russia, close to the city of Smolensk. He was three years old when his parents emigrated to the USA. In 1958, he decided to pursue a career as a writer. His “Foundation” trilogy series, set in the very distant future, became a bestseller and made the author famous. As part of this series, he laid down the 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 THE ORDERS GIVEN 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 LAWS. In the novel “Galactic Empire”, which was published later, Asimov had a robot add an additional law itself – this is what is known as the “Zeroth Law of Robotics”: “A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.” This “zeroth” law outranked the other three laws according to the author. Asimov’s ideas act as a sort of guiding prin- ciple in the area of artificial intelligence, even for today’s developers. Blockbuster movie “I, Robot” starring Will Smith is based on a story created by Asimov and places the significance and limitations of the Laws of Robotics right at the centre of the action. Lawyers at the German Federal Ministry of Transport are currently working on draft legislation which is intended to prevent algorithms from creating their own legal system. Computers, and therefore autonomous vehicles, are to be prohibited from having algorithms which weigh up the lives of human beings against damage to property which would go against Asimov’s Laws. After all, a robot can only act in the way it has been programmed to act. A robot can go through thousand of options in just a few milli- seconds and then carry out the pre-programmed action. People, however, interpret the rules according to each situation and act, in the best case scenario, in an ethically correct manner. The development of an ethical machine would really be the final triumph for artificial intelligence. VISIONARY

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