Records

This academic article argues that child-robot interaction (cHRI) research in kindergartens must move beyond a narrow microperspective focused solely on immediate learning outcomes and usability. The authors analyze ethical, legal, and social implications across four areas: the kindergarten institutional setting, children as a vulnerable group, the role of caregivers, and pedagogical concepts. They advocate for a macroperspective that considers institutional goals, social norms, trust, and stakeholder involvement before deploying robots in early education settings.

This academic paper explores how various healthcare robot applications support or pressure human dignity. It analyzes the limitations of existing safety rules, data protection laws, and technology ethics in governing robotics. Ultimately, it proposes human dignity as the overarching legal framework and basis for the governance of robotics.

This academic article considers the law's response to the emergence of robots and artificial intelligence, examining whether they should be considered legal persons and bearers of legal rights. The authors analyse regulatory issues through three central questions: could robots be granted rights, will robots be granted rights, and should robots be granted rights. By reviewing historical categories of legal personhood and current debates in intellectual property law, the article explores the fluidity of legal personhood and the practical challenges of regulatory reform.

This technical report by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre provides an original methodology to estimate economy-wide investments in artificial intelligence as a general-purpose technology. It compiles data on ten different expenditure items across ten EU member states for the year 2018, grouped under talent and skills, lab-to-market translation, and data/infrastructure. The findings show that EU AI investments reached between 7.0 and 8.4 billion euros in 2018, with significant variations across countries and strong complementarities between tangible and intangible assets.

This doctoral dissertation examines the application of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to personal household social robots (HSRs). It investigates the practical, legal, and technical challenges of applying data protection rules—such as consent, purpose limitation, transparency, and data controllership—to autonomous systems that process personal data through machine learning. Through legal analysis, future scenarios, and expert interviews across four EU member states, the study evaluates accountability gaps and proposes recommendations for lawmakers, developers, and data protection authorities.

This academic book chapter examines the ethical considerations of using social robots for healthcare assessment and monitoring. It proposes a typology of social robots including telepresence, testing, and surveillance robots, and categorizes relevant ethical values into assessment quality and privacy, acceptability and transparency, and the ethic of caring. The chapter discusses three prototypical uses: remote diagnosis in hospitals, autism interventions for children, and domestic monitoring for dementia patients. Finally, it argues that value-sensitive design, deployment planning, and tailored professional training are essential to address these ethical challenges effectively.

Espana Digital 2025 is a strategic national agenda designed to drive Spain's digital transformation through ten strategic axes, including digital connectivity, 5G deployment, digital skills, cybersecurity, public sector digitalization, enterprise digitalization, sectoral economic projects, the audiovisual hub, the data economy and artificial intelligence, and digital rights. The plan outlines approximately 50 structural measures and aims to mobilize around 70,000 billion euros in public and private investments between 2020 and 2022. It seeks to accelerate economic recovery, reduce social and territorial inequalities, and strengthen technological sovereignty in alignment with European digital policies.

This report prepared by the OECD for the G20 Digital Economy Task Force details examples of national policies, strategies, and innovative practices from G20 and guest countries designed to implement the G20 AI Principles. It sets out rationales and illustrative actions for both values-based principles for trustworthy AI and recommendations for national policies and international cooperation. The compilation serves as a reference document to assist countries in shaping responsible stewardship, innovation, and governance for artificial intelligence.

This report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights examines the implications of artificial intelligence and big data on fundamental rights within the EU. Based on qualitative interviews and case studies across four key areas—social benefits, predictive policing, healthcare, and targeted advertising—the report evaluates how public administrations and private companies factor fundamental rights into AI development and deployment. It identifies critical challenges related to data protection, non-discrimination, transparency, and access to justice. Finally, it issues opinions and recommendations for policymakers, advocating for mandatory fundamental rights impact assessments and stronger accountability mechanisms.

The Jordan Artificial Intelligence Policy 2020 outlines the national strategy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to harness artificial intelligence for sustainable digital and economic development. It establishes a multi-pillar framework covering governance, legislative and regulatory environments, digital infrastructure, the business and investment environment, and capacity building. The policy aims to position Jordan as a regional technology hub, foster public-private partnerships, ensure ethical AI use, and adapt education and workforce skills to the emerging digital economy.

The Jordan Artificial Intelligence Policy 2020 outlines Jordan's national strategic framework to harness artificial intelligence for economic and social development across the public and private sectors. It establishes five main pillars covering governance, legislative and regulatory environments, digital infrastructure, business and investment environments, and capacity building. Key mechanisms include forming a National Ministerial Committee for AI, drafting a National Charter on AI Ethics, establishing a regulatory sandbox, and integrating AI into educational curricula and technical training programs.

This academic paper examines the legal and ethical dimensions of scraping and data collection restrictions in social media terms of service (TOS). Analyzing TOS from 116 social media sites worldwide, the authors find that prohibitions against automated and manual data collection are highly common yet ambiguous, inconsistent, and devoid of context. The paper concludes by arguing that ethical decision-making in social computing research must extend beyond mere compliance with TOS to consider contextual factors such as research purpose and data sensitivity.

This academic paper establishes a transdisciplinary exploration of care robots and their tracking capabilities as an ethical performance rather than mere moral action or simple spying. By linking robot ethics, media and surveillance studies with posthuman and performative ethics, the author argues that the primary concern is not an intentionality to spy, but rather the structural availability of sensitive health data and the growing ubiquity of care technologies. Ultimately, the paper calls for increased attention to dataveillance, data appropriation, and the commercialization of care within vulnerable elderly care environments.

This academic article examines the legal status of AI robots, exploring whether they should be treated as legal objects or legal subjects. It reviews current global developments in AI regulation, instances of AI-related harm, and existing legal theories such as corporate fiction and liability models. The authors advocate for comprehensive international legal frameworks and liability structures to address the challenges posed by advanced autonomous technologies.

This technical report by the European Commission Joint Research Centre examines the robustness and explainability of artificial intelligence systems, bridging technical machine learning research with policy and regulatory considerations. It details vulnerabilities such as data poisoning and adversarial examples, discusses transparency and data protection issues under the GDPR, and puts forward policy recommendations for standardization and certification tools for AI.

The National Data & AI Strategy (NSDAI) of Saudi Arabia provides a comprehensive roadmap for transforming the Kingdom into a global leader in data and artificial intelligence by 2034. It outlines five core pillars spanning sovereign infrastructure, national data management, digital platforms, AI applications, and sector enablement, containing 17 strategic objectives. Led by the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), the strategy sets concrete targets for talent development, open data expansion, super app adoption, and national AI readiness.

This review paper analyzes the challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence in implementing trustworthy robots and autonomous systems (RAS). It identifies four key properties required for trustworthiness—robustness for health issues, safety in surrounding environments, cyber security, and trusted human-machine interaction—while examining how AI techniques can help address these challenges. The study emphasizes the emerging concept of human-centred AI as core to building fully trustworthy autonomous systems.

This academic paper examines the criminal liability arising from accidents involving robots and artificial intelligence systems under Japanese law. It differentiates between traditional property crimes and professional negligence, discusses the challenges of attributing fault when autonomous systems are involved, and explores potential legal and institutional reforms to address agency and accountability in robotics.

This academic paper examines ethical issues surrounding social robots and lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS). It discusses philosophical dilemmas such as human-robot relationships, moral status, responsibility gaps, and adherence to international humanitarian law. The text highlights how the introduction of autonomous technologies complicates traditional societal structures and warfare.

This academic article analyzes the legal and ethical principles governing human interaction with artificial intelligence, robots, and robotics in Russia and foreign jurisdictions. It reviews current Russian experimental legal frameworks on AI and argues that legislation must incorporate foundational principles such as humanism, the prohibition of discrimination, and the presumption of human innocence. Ultimately, the paper proposes a comprehensive set of legal principles to guide future legislative development for advanced AI and robotics.

These organizational arrangements establish the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) as an independent legal entity reporting directly to the Prime Minister. The text defines SDAIA's mandate to govern data and artificial intelligence, promote related research and innovation, and oversee the National Information Center, the National Center for Artificial Intelligence, and the National Data Management Office. It also outlines the governance structure, including the board of directors, financial resources, budgeting, and auditing processes.

The Korean government established the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence on December 17th, 2019, with the vision of becoming an AI world leader beyond IT. The strategy aims to achieve digital competitiveness, drive economic impact, and improve people's quality of life by 2030. It consists of 100 government-wide action tasks grouped under 9 strategies across three main areas: AI ecosystem, AI utilization, and people-centered AI.

This academic article proposes a philosophical-ethical framework for the use of socially assistive robots in aged-care settings, bridging the gap between empirical research and philosophical reflection. Drawing on the works of Margaret Urban Walker, Joan Tronto, and Andrew Feenberg, the authors argue for a socio-historical contextualisation of robot ethics. Ultimately, they outline a rudimentary decision-making process based on three pillars: stakeholders' intuitions as sources of knowledge, interpretative dialogues as democratic spaces, and the concretisation of ethics in robot design and use.

These organizational arrangements establish the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) as an independent legal entity reporting to the Prime Minister, responsible for governing data and artificial intelligence in Saudi Arabia. The document outlines SDAIA's objectives, powers, board structure, executive responsibilities, financial provisions, and its constituent bodies including the National Information Center, the National Data Management Office, and the National Center for Artificial Intelligence.

This paper presents findings from four international workshops held between 2015 and 2017 regarding the ethical, legal, and social concerns associated with social robots. It synthesizes expert opinions on five main challenge areas: privacy and security, legal uncertainty, autonomy and agency, employment effects, and the replacement of human interactions. The authors provide a holistic overview of these challenges along with recommendations and contextualization within recent regulatory and human-robot interaction literature.

Australia's AI Ethics Principles provide voluntary guidance for businesses and governments to responsibly design, develop, and implement artificial intelligence systems. The framework consists of eight core principles addressing human, societal, and environmental wellbeing, human-centred values, fairness, privacy and security, reliability and safety, transparency and explainability, contestability, and accountability. These principles aim to ensure AI is safe, secure, and reliable while achieving fairer outcomes for all Australians.

Australia’s AI Ethics Principles provide voluntary guidance for businesses and governments to responsibly design, develop, and implement artificial intelligence systems. The framework establishes eight core principles focused on human wellbeing, human-centred values, fairness, privacy, reliability and safety, transparency, contestability, and accountability. These principles aim to ensure that AI is safe, secure, and reliable while promoting positive outcomes for all Australians.

This academic paper proposes an accountable design architecture for learning-based embodied AI systems, focusing on physical human support robots like standing assistive devices. It argues that because machine learning components act as untrustworthy black boxes, systems must describe their entire structure using SysML and transcribe relevant information tailored to different stakeholders and interfaces. The authors demonstrate this architecture through a developed support robot that provides transparent operational states, user state estimations, and investigation interfaces.

This presidential decree establishes Russia's national strategy for the development of artificial intelligence up to the year 2030. It sets out qualitative goals, short-term and medium-term objectives, and basic principles focused on boosting domestic AI capabilities, scientific research, and commercial competitiveness. The decree mandates the Russian Government to incorporate amendments into the Digital Economy national program and allocate federal budget funds for implementation.

This academic paper explores an Exploratory Governance Framework (EGF) for managing socially assistive robotics (SAR) within smart cities and living environments. It contrasts centralized top-down governance with self and peer regulatory approaches, incorporating concepts of technology coevolution and design considerations. The research aims to balance perspectives on regulatory options for innovative technologies and services.

This report, commissioned by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation and authored by the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW), examines the role of artificial intelligence in science and research. Based on expert interviews, it outlines current applications, challenges such as explainability and data availability, ongoing Swiss and European activities, and recommendations for action across higher education and federal policy.

This academic paper examines the feasibility of granting legal personality ("electronic person") to smart robots, based on a proposal and resolution by the European Union. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the author evaluates the current level of artificial intelligence autonomy, ethical challenges, and legal implications. The study concludes that granting legal personality is currently unnecessary and unjustified, suggesting instead that robots should be treated as products with strict liability along the supply chain.

This article discusses the unintended and unexpected biases present in artificial intelligence and robotic systems, examining how algorithms can reinforce discrimination in areas like computer vision, hiring, and criminal risk assessment. It highlights the specific challenges these biases pose for robotics and automation, especially in human-robot interactions and life-critical decisions. Finally, the authors advocate for multidisciplinary approaches that combine technical fairness methods with insights from sociology, ethics, and philosophy to ensure the fair deployment of these technologies.

This academic chapter reviews ethical questions and legislative efforts involving human-robot interaction as social robotics becomes more ubiquitous. It emphasizes the core objective of safeguarding human quality of life and well-being, pointing to the need for educational efforts that clarify the role of robotics in society.

This briefing paper from the European Parliamentary Research Service examines the context, key requirements, and implementation challenges of the EU's guidelines on ethics in artificial intelligence published in April 2019. It details the human-centric approach to AI adopted by the EU, outlines the seven key ethical requirements for trustworthy AI, and discusses implementation challenges, national initiatives, and possible further EU actions ranging from soft law guidance to hard law legislation.

This academic mini-review explores the ethical implications of emotional and psychological ties formed during human-robot interaction (HRI)-mediated learning. It highlights how children and users may develop deep affective dependencies on humanoid robots used for education and accompaniment. The author calls for an interdisciplinary research network combining pure sciences, applied sciences, and human sciences to establish ethical frameworks and examine the broader anthropological impacts of these technologies.

The AI Utilization Guidelines serve as a practical reference for AI utilization, formulated by the Conference toward AI Network Society in Japan. They establish ten core AI utilization principles covering proper scope, data quality, collaboration, safety, security, privacy, human dignity, fairness, transparency, and accountability. Operating as a non-binding soft law, the document provides detailed commentary and considerations for developers, AI service providers, business users, and consumer users across various phases of AI utilization.

This plan outlines a federal strategy for engagement in the development of technical standards and related tools for artificial intelligence, supporting reliable, robust, and trustworthy AI systems. Prepared in response to Executive Order 13859, the document emphasizes active U.S. government participation in voluntary consensus standards development, public-private partnerships, and international cooperation. It identifies priority areas for standardization—such as safety, risk management, and trustworthiness—and provides practical steps for federal agencies to guide their involvement.

The AI Taiwan Action Plan is a government initiative launched to sharpen Taiwan's technological advantages, prioritize innovation and real-world implementation, and develop software and hardware in tandem. The plan focuses on five major components: developing AI talent, promoting Taiwan's lead role in AI through semiconductors, building an AI innovation hub, liberalizing laws and opening test grounds, and transforming industry with AI. Guided by principles of deregulation, open access, and technology investment, the plan aims to propel Taiwan into the ranks of the world's leading smart nations.

This report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) examines the technical aspects of human control over autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Drawing on insights from the civilian sector, it analyzes the challenges of predictability, reliability, and human-machine interaction in autonomous weapon systems. The document highlights how AI and machine learning introduce inherent unpredictability and bias, reinforcing the urgent need for states to establish limits on autonomy in weapon systems.

This document outlines the foundational framework and strategic justification for developing a national artificial intelligence strategy for Chile. It reviews international and domestic contexts, examines the impacts of AI on labor, ethics, data protection, and society, and proposes a 34-week project roadmap to build a comprehensive national AI strategy.

This academic paper examines the meaning of autonomy in robotics through conceptual analysis and language critique, distinguishing technical empirical-descriptive autonomy from normative human autonomy. It introduces six forms of technical tools to describe levels of technical autonomy and summarizes them in a heuristic scheme for ethical, legal, and social debates. The work was supported by the EU Horizon 2020 INBOTS project.

This academic paper presents and discusses ethical issues related to the interaction of elderly people with robots while playing cognitive games in nursing homes. Four games of increasing difficulty were developed, the last of which involves tele-operating a car-like robot to knock down objects in an arena. The paper addresses key ethical considerations including informed consent, beneficence, anonymity, confidentiality, privacy, social contact, insensitive use of robots, and the risk of deception and infantilisation.

This academic paper explores privacy, data protection, and intellectual property rights related to personal and collaborative robots within the EU jurisdiction. It compares the publicly available privacy policies and data governance schemes of four major robotic companies: SoftBank Robotics, Engineered Arts, iRobot Corporation, and Universal Robots. The analysis reveals that robots supporting more sophisticated levels of user interaction tend to offer the most limited privacy and user rights terms.

This edited academic book provides a comprehensive overview of social robots, covering underlying technologies such as motion tracking and emotion recognition alongside application areas from industrial collaboration to healthcare and education. It incorporates interdisciplinary user studies and discussions on present and future ethical challenges in human-robot interaction. Published in 2019, the text serves as a compendium and guideline for navigating the design space of social robotics.

This academic paper examines the ethical and social issues surrounding the development and use of robots, focusing on lethal autonomous weapons systems, social robots, and the impact of automation on labor. It explores the philosophical questions of whether robots can be considered moral agents or moral patients and how society should integrate robotic entities. The text discusses the broader implications for human values, accountability, and the evolving nature of human-robot interaction.

This document outlines proposals for an Italian national strategy on artificial intelligence, prepared by an expert group at the Ministry of Economic Development in July 2019. It emphasizes an anthropocentric, sustainable approach to AI, referred to as a RenAIssance, focusing on human-centric policies, reliable ecosystems, and sustainable development goals. The strategy details recommendations across education, labor, legal protections, public administration modernization, and research infrastructure.

The Italian National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence sets forth a comprehensive vision to position Italy competitively in AI through increased public and private investments, research ecosystem enhancement, and technology adoption. It emphasizes an anthropocentric, ethical, and reliable approach to AI, aligning with European Union frameworks and Sustainable Development Goals. The strategy outlines key actions across seven priority sectors, educational reforms, data economy stimulation, and regulatory consolidation.

The National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan: 2019 Update defines priority areas for federally funded AI research and development in the United States. Building upon the 2016 plan, this update identifies eight strategic priorities to ensure continued American leadership in AI, spanning long-term fundamental research, human-AI collaboration, ethical and legal implications, safety and security, shared datasets, standards and benchmarks, workforce needs, and public-private partnerships. The strategy guides federal agency investments while fostering an ecosystem of collaboration across government, academia, and industry.

This academic paper presents and defends 'ethical behaviourism', a theory holding that robots can possess significant moral status if they are performatively equivalent to other entities that already hold such status. The author defends the theory against seven major objections and argues that the performative threshold for moral status may be crossed soon, or already has been. Finally, the paper considers implications for procreative duties toward robots, suggesting we may need to take a duty of 'procreative beneficence' toward them seriously.