Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

7-2021

Abstract

The paper has two main objectives: to examine the challenges arising from the use of carebots as well as to discuss how the design of carebots can deal with these challenges. First, it notes that the use of carebots to take care of the physical and mental health of the elderly, children and the disabled as well as to serve as assistive tools and social companions encounter a few main challenges. They relate to the extent of the care robots’ ability to care for humans, potential deception by robot morphology and communications, (over)reliance on or attachment to robots, and the risks of carebot use without informed consent and potential infringements of privacy. Secondly, these challenges impinge upon issues of ethics and trust which are somewhat overlapping in terms of concept and practice. The existing ethical guidelines, standards and regulations are general in nature and lack a central ethical framework and concrete principles applicable to the care contexts. Hence, to deal with these important challenges, it is proposed in the third part of the paper that carebots be designed by taking account of Ethics of Care as the central ethical framework. It argues that the Ethics of Care offer the following advantages: (a) it provides sufficiently concrete principles and embodies values that are sensitive and applicable to the design of carebots and the contexts of caring practices; (b) it coheres with the tenets of Principlism and select ethical theories (utilitarianism, deontology and virtue ethics); and (c) it is closely associated with the preservation and maintenance of trust.

Keywords

Care robots, Trust, Ethics, Design, Ethics of Care, Artificial Intelligence

Discipline

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics | Elder Law | Science and Technology Law

Research Areas

Innovation, Technology and the Law

Publication

International Journal of Social Robotics

Volume

13

Issue

4

First Page

629

Last Page

645

ISSN

1875-4791

Identifier

10.1007/s12369-020-00653-w

Publisher

Springer

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-020-00653-w

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