South Korea, at the forefront of the drive to develop robots which can do anything from guarding the border to caring for the elderly, is now drawing up a code of ethics for them.
The nation, which has set an ambitious goal of a robot in every home by 2013, has launched a project to write what it believes will be the world’s first Robot Ethics Charter. It will be released by year’s end.
“We are setting rules on how far robotic technology can go and how humans live together with robots,” said Kim Dae-Won, a professor at Myongji University who heads a team of 12 scientists, doctors, psychologists and robot developers.
“A society in which robots and humans live together may come faster than we think, probably within 10 years.”