Google tackles challenge of how to build an honest robot

San Francisco: Google can see a future where robots help us unload the dishwasher and sweep the floor. The challenge is making sure they don't inadvertently knock over a vase--or worse--while doing so. Researchers at Alphabet Inc. unit Google, along with collaborators at Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, and OpenAI--an artificial intelligence development company backed by Elon Musk--have some ideas about how to design robot minds that won't lead to undesirable consequences for the people they serve. They published a technical paper on Tuesday outlining their thinking. The motivation for the research is the immense popularity of artificial intelligence, software that can learn about the world and act within it.