Google Tackles Challenge of How to Build an Honest Robot

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 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.