In the year of 2009, the number of published roboethics related books was the main indicator for the ‘rise of roboethics’. This year, this positive trend towards discussion of roboethics issues is reflected in robotics conferences such as ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction 2010, and in courses offered to university students.

Dr. Hinman, director of the Values Institute and co-founder of the Center for Ethics in Science and Technology, is offering a course on roboethics this year at the University of San Diego.

In the Fall semester of 2010, Dr. Hinman’s class will “question and analyze the autonomy of robots, considering the consequences of giving a robot too much freedom when they lack the ability to make decisions based on human emotions and ethics.”

To read up more about his course, please visit the University of San Diego website: USD: CAS: News & Events: Larry Hinman.