Experts Want Robots to Have an "Ethical Black Box" That Explains Their Decision-Making

Scientists Alan Winfield, professor of robot ethics at the University of the West of England in Bristol, and Marina Jirotka, professor of human-centered computing at Oxford University, believe robots should be fitted with an "ethical black box." This would be the ethics equivalent of the aviation safety measure of the same name, designed to track a pilot's decisions and enable investigators to follow those actions in the event of accidents. As robots leave the controlled settings of factories and laboratories to interact more with humans, safety measures of this nature will become increasingly important. Winfield and Jirotka argue that robotics firms should emulate the example provided by the aviation industry, which owes its safety record not just to technology and design, but also to stringent safety protocols and accident investigation. That industry introduced both black boxes and cockpit voice recorders to ensure accident investigators would be able to determine both causes of crashes and obtain critical lessons in prevention and safety.