Guilty Robots (Img Source: NYTimes.com, PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY REINHARD HUNGER; SET DESIGN BY SARAH ILLENBERGER)

The Ninth Annual Year in Ideas – Magazine – NYTimes.com

One of the ideas introduced in The 9th Annual Year in Ideas by the The Times Magazine is military roboethics.

Titled “Guilty Robots”, the magazine mentions Ronald Arkin’s recent work in military robotics and ethical architecture, as well as a new direction he is taking: modeling guilt.

After considering several moral emotions like remorse, compassion and shame, Arkin decided to focus on modeling guilt because it can be used to condemn specific behavior and generate constructive change. While fighting, his robots assess battlefield damage and then use algorithms to calculate the appropriate level of guilt.