S. Korea Mulls Ethics Code For Robots
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BEIJING — South Korea’s obsession with technology has led it to consider what may be the first government-backed ethical code for robots.
Already well advanced in considering potential uses for robots, from the battlefield to the kitchen, the Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy yesterday said it hoped to publish guidelines for human-robot relations by the end of the year.
In a move sure to delight science-fiction fans, the “Robot Ethics Charter” is likely to be modeled on the instructions devised by the American writer Isaac Asimov in his series of novels about robots.
This was a sort of Hippocratic oath for androids: They were not allowed to harm humans or allow them to come to harm through inaction; they had to obey orders, and they had to protect themselves if that did not compromise the first two instructions.
