Using robots to kill: Ethics debated after Dallas
‘Terminator’-style hits remain beyond the realm of reason
When Dallas police detonated a “bomb robot” last week to take down a sniper suspect, it was believed to be the first time a robot was used by law enforcement to kill a human in the U.S. Dallas Police Chief David Brown explained later that “other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger.”
The action raises ethical questions about the role of robots in warfare or, in this case, police work, especially given continuing breakthroughs in machine learning and artificial intelligence.
“I think for all of us, the first issue that comes to mind is some degree of relief,” says Michael Kalichman, director of the Center for Ethics in Science and Tech- nology. “While it’s premature to judge exactly what happened, it certainly seems likely that this ended a tragedy that could have been far worse. However, we also can’t help but think about where this will go next.”
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told reporters Friday he could foresee the device being used in similar situations across the nation in the future, but only as a last resort. “The key thing is to keep our police out of harm’s way,” he said.
The good news is that we’re a long way from unleashing robots that are potentially autonomous
Terminator- like killing machines. The robot used by Dallas police remained under full human control, noted Martial Hebert, head of The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
CEO Sean Bielat of Endeavor Robotics, which before being spun off in April was the Defense & Security unit at iRobot, agrees: “When it comes to life and death, you want people making those decisions,” he says.
Endeavor has delivered more than 6,000 mobile robots worldwide, but only a few hundred to law enforcement. The costs — the robots command prices in excess of $100,000 — are a key barrier for some budget-strapped police agencies. The rest go to military in the U.S. and in other countries.
Robots have been infiltrating areas besides law enforcement, some for years. There’s a sizable consumer segment — think toys and Roomba vacuum cleaners — as well as applications that touch industrial, medical, enterprise, drones and autonomous vehicles fields.
According to the Tractica market research firm, in 2015, there were about 8.8 million robotics shipments made globally, roughly 75% from the consumer segment. By 2020, Tractica projects shipments will reach about 61.4 million, with the consumer share dropping to around 50%.
Unmanned drones, which have been been lumped into the robotics category, certainly have been used in warfare. Whether various robotics systems eventually end up in widespread use by law enforcement isn’t so much about the technology as it is about legal, financial and ethical policy.
“The reality is that there are innumerable reasons why things can and will go wrong,” Kalichman says.
“When it comes to life and death, you want people making those decisions.” Sean Bielat, CEO of Endeavor Robotics