Communications - July 2010

Vviewpoints
DOI: 10.1145/1785414.1785428
Computing ethics
work Life in
the robotic age

Technological change results in changes in
expectations, in this case affecting the workplace.

Robo Ts are beiNG designed to perform a broader ar- ray of work-related tasks. Global economic hard- ships may be (temporarily)
causing the demand for industrial ro-
bots to decline, 4 but improvements in
artificial intelligence and the drive for
efficiency will likely encourage com-
panies to develop and use increasing
amounts of robotic workers. Though
the justification for automation is
often couched in the language of lib-
eration, this oversimplifies the com-
plexities associated with technological
change. Merely because technology
is well designed from an engineering
perspective, it does not follow that
society’s problems are solved. This is
not to say that efforts to create robotic
workers must stop, but the robotics
community must be diligent in deal-
ing with emerging ethical issues. De-
sign pathways must be selected that
either mitigate or prevent the nega-
tive consequences of using robots in
the workplace. Otherwise, troubling
historical occurrences, such as the
decimation of certain segments of the
work force, might be repeated.

With each significant technological change, visions of how improved and efficient our lives will become are typically offered. To some degree, the promise that we will be “liberated” from performing repetitive and mundane tasks has held true. Most of us do not mourn the passing of having to wash clothes or dishes by hand. Yet expectations in both our personal and professional lives tend to shift correspondingly, which in many ways counterbalances the “liberating” features that technology offers. Ruth Schwartz Cowan recognized years ago that the introduction of electronic devices into the home did not free women from the burden of doing household chores. As Cowan states, “What a strange paradox that in the face of so many labor-saving devices, little labor appears to have been saved!” 1 In short, increasing expectations absorbed all of the extra time that was supposed to be freed up.

Similarly, we need to seriously consider how the increased use of robots will alter workplace expectations. For instance, if robots can help surgical procedures to be completed more rapidly, will demands on surgeons increase so they will have to perform more procedures per day? Expectations in terms of what it means to be a “good” professional are also likely to change, especially if a robot’s error rate is lower than a human’s. Briefly put, we should be wary of predictions that robots will be our liberators considering how the