Europe vs Robots: Round 1 - Netopia

"From Mary Shelley's Frankenstein's Monster to the classical myth of Pygmalion, through the story of Prague's Golem to the robot of Karel Čapek, who coined the word, people have fantasised about the possibility of building intelligent machines, more often than not androids with human features". This is not an excerpt from a book on the history of robots in literature, but the opening sentence of the brand new European Parliament report on Robotics. Beyond this anecdotal reference, this draft report attempts to answer a question: as the presence of robots in our societies is no longer a science-fiction fantasy, and with people interacting more and more with intelligent machines in their day-to-day lives, is the future of humanity threatened? While the European Commission does currently fund robotics projects, the EU lacks a common regulatory framework in this field. Against this backdrop, the legal affairs committee of the European Parliament, has been entrusted with the task of writing a report on the issue of robotics, and has elaborated policy recommendations for the European Commission.