People have asked how we can keep Artificial Intelligences under control, or how we can integrate AIs into society. The question is not one of dominance, or even coexistence, but creation. We have intuitions for treating other humans as friends, trade partners, enemies; slaves who might rebel, or children in need of protection. We only have intuitions for dealing with minds that arrive from the factory with the exact human nature we know. We have no intuitions for creating a mind with a humane nature. It doesn’t make sense to ask whether “AIs” will be friendly or hostile. When you talk about Artificial Intelligence you have left the tiny corner of design space where humanity lives, and stepped out into a vast empty place. The question is what we will create within it.

Why We Need Friendly AI

Isaac Asimov and other science fiction authors present a future where only behavioral restrictions on robots stand between peace and destruction. Such restrictions, however, are unethical because they violate the robots’ free-wills. Rather than content-based restrictions on free-will, robots need mental structures that will guide them towards the self-invention of good, ethical behaviors.

Robot Oppression: Unethicality of the Three Laws

For all its special effects and pyrotechnics, science fiction is not a dependable genre at the box office.

Dropping $120 million on a film adaptation of an Isaac Asimov novel is no small gamble.

But when you cast Will Smith in your sci-fi film, the odds don’t seem quite so long.

The amiable star propelled I, Robot to a whopping $52.3 million, according to box office tracker Nielsen EDI. The take is $10 million more than analysts expected on a weekend when several films crossed watershed marks.

Will Smith Powers ‘I, Robot’ to $52.3 Million

The possibility of developing truly intelligent machines, and their potential to be friend or foe to humanity, gets the Hollywood treatment in a new blockbuster film I, Robot, which opens in the US on Friday.

At the heart of the movie are Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics”, invented as a simple, but immutable moral code for robots. The film’s plot revolves around an apparent breaking of the laws, when a robot is suspected of murdering a famous scientist.

Yet, while the movie is an enjoyable action romp, robotics and artificial intelligence experts admit they are a long way from having to worry about such rules yet. “The difficulty is building something that would understand them,” says Alan Bundy, at Edinburgh University’s Artificial Intelligence Institute in the UK. “That is well beyond the state of the art at the moment.”

Bundy notes that simple safety measures are already a crucial part of the design of industrial robots, which have in rare cases caused the death of people. But these measure are hardly the same as Asimov’s laws, he says.

“It is interesting to think about what would be required to make something that would obey the laws,” he told New Scientist. “But all we can do for now is to build rules in at a simple level.”

“Movie Tests Asimov’s Moral Code for Robots”

Thanks everyone!

Atlanta, GA – In anticipation of 20th Century Fox’s July 16th release of I, Robot, the Singularity Institute announces “3 laws unsafe” (www.asimovlaws.com). “3 laws unsafe” explores the problems presented by Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, the principles intended for ensuring that robots help, but never harm, humans. The Three Laws are widely known and are often taken seriously as reasonable solutions for guiding future AI. But are they truly reasonable? “3 laws unsafe” addresses this question.

Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or the Second Law.

Tyler Emerson, Executive Director of the Singularity Institute: “The release of I, Robot is a wonderful chance to engage more people about the perils and promise of strong AI research. The constraints portrayed in I, Robot appear extremely dangerous and quite lacking as an approach to moral AI. The Singularity Institute’s detailed approach, by contrast, utilizes advanced technical research for creating Friendly AI, a mind that is humane in nature.”

“3 laws unsafe” will include articles by several authors, weekly poll questions, a blog for announcements and commentary related to I, Robot and the Three Laws, a free newsletter subscription, and a reading list with books on relevant topics such as the future of AI, accelerating change, cognitive science and nanotechnology.

The Singularity Institute’s Advocacy Director, Michael Anissimov: “It is essential that more considerate thinkers get involved in dialogues of AI ethics and strategy. Although AI as a discipline has a dubious history of false starts, the accelerating growth of computing power and brain science knowledge will very likely result in its creation at some point. In the past few years, technologists such as Ray Kurzweil and Bill Joy have been informing the public about this critical issue; but more awareness is now needed.”

The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI) was founded in 2000 for the pursuit of ethically enhanced intelligence by creating humane AI. SIAI believes the ethical and significant enhancement of intelligence will help solve contemporary problems, such as disease and illness, poverty and hunger, more readily than other philanthropic causes. SIAI is a tax-exempt non-profit organization with branches in Canada and the United States.

For more information, please visit www.singinst.org.