Ethics and accountability will be among the most significant challenges for artificial intelligence (AI) in 2019, according to a survey of researchers at Georgia Tech's College of Computing. In response to an email query about AI developments that can be expected in 2019, most of the researchers – whether talking about machine learning (ML), robotics, data visualizations, natural language processing, or other facets of AI – touched on the growing importance of recognizing the needs of people in AI systems. "In 2019, I hope we will see AI researchers and practitioners start to frame the debate about proper and improper uses of artificial intelligence and machine learning in terms of human rights," said Associate Professor Mark Riedl. "More and more, interpretability and fairness are being recognized as critical issues to address to ensure AI appropriately interacts with society," said Ph.D. student Fred Hohman. Questions about the rights of end users of AI-enabled services and products are becoming a priority, but Riedl said more is needed.

Ronald Arkin has played key leadership roles in making technology more human--and humane. He has helped develop innovations such as multi-robot teams, human-robot interaction, hybrid robot software architectures, and more recently, robot ethics. His research incorporates ethical reasoning into the context of military and healthcare applications for autonomous robots. Arkin's goal: To keep top-of-mind and to mentor others about the care and thoughtfulness needed in discussing law, policies, and regulation governing and managing artificial intelligence. Toward that end, he works to ensure that his graduate students and the junior faculty understand not only the technical issues but also the socio-political landscape involved in the increasingly pervasive ways that advanced technology affects people's lives.

This same connection is seen in Sparky, the fifth episode of Glimpse, a new original sci-fi series from Futurism Studios (a division of Futurism LLC) and DUST. Scientists have long understood the psychological benefits of computerized companions. Studies have shown they can help combat loneliness among the elderly, motivate students in isolated communities, and even improve symptoms in dementia patients. Still, despite all of this research, one big question remains: are robotic pets as good as the real thing? The robots of yesteryear clearly were not.

As the power of artificial intelligence grows, the likelihood of a future war filled with killer robots grows as well. Proponents suggest that lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWs) might cause less "collateral damage," while critics warn that giving machines the power of life and death would be a terrible mistake. Last month's UN meeting on'killer robots' in Geneva ended with victory for the machines, as a small number of countries blocked progress towards an international ban. Some opponents of such a ban, like Russia and Israel, were to be expected since both nations already have advanced military AI programs. But surprisingly, the U.S. also agreed with them.

In the last year, we've seen Google form the DeepMind Ethics & Society to investigate the implications of its AI in society, and we've witnessed the rise of intelligent sex dolls. We've had to take a deep look at whether the warbots we're developing will actually comply with our commands and whether tomorrow's robo-surgeons will honor the Hippocratic Oath. So it's not to say that such restrictions can't be hard-coded into an AI operating system, just that additional nuance is needed, especially as 2018 will see AI reach deeper into our everyday lives. Asimov's famous three laws of robotics is "a wonderful literary vehicle but not a pragmatic way to design robotic systems," said Dr. Ron Arkin, Regents' professor and director of Mobile Robot Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Envisioned in 1942, when the state of robotics was rudimentary at best, the laws were too rigid for use in 2017.

The Georgia Institute of Technology won the Office Cleanup event at the 1994 AAAI Robot Competition and Exhibition with a multirobot cooperating team. This article describes the design and implementation of these reactive trash-collecting robots, including details of multiagent cooperation, color vision for the detection of perceptual object classes, temporal sequencing of behaviors for task completion, and a language for specifying motor schema-based robot behaviors. The 10-pound robots were built using off-theshelf components at a cost of approximately $1700 each. The chassis sits atop a motorized base purchased as a radio-controlled-model kit. Each robot is equipped with bumper sensors, a miniature color camera, and a specially designed mechanical gripper.

Kolodner has long been investigating the use of case-based reasoning for solving a range of complex problems in a variety of domains. Goel is exploring the integration of different types of knowledge and methods of reasoning for planning and design problem solving. In case-based reasoning (Kolodner 1990), a reasoner solves new problems by remembering previous situations similar to the new situation.

We won't have to wait until 2019 for our Blade Runner future, mostly because artificially intelligent robots already walk, roll and occasionally backflip among us. Some have wagged their way into our hearts while others have taken a more literal route. Both in civilian life and the military battlespace, AI is adopting physical form to multiply the capabilities of the humans it serves. As robots gain ubiquity, friction between these bolt buckets and we meat sacks is sure to cause issues. So how do we ensure that the increasingly intelligent machines we design share our ethical values while minimizing human-robot conflict?

We are not used to the idea of machines making ethical decisions, but the day when they will routinely do this - by themselves - is fast approaching. So how, asks the BBC's David Edmonds, will we teach them to do the right thing? The car arrives at your home bang on schedule at 8am to take you to work. You climb into the back seat and remove your electronic reading device from your briefcase to scan the news. There has never been trouble on the journey before: there's usually little congestion.

We are not used to the idea of machines making ethical decisions, but the day when they will routinely do this - by themselves - is fast approaching. So how, asks the BBC's David Edmonds, will we teach them to do the right thing? The car arrives at your home bang on schedule at 8am to take you to work. You climb into the back seat and remove your electronic reading device from your briefcase to scan the news. There has never been trouble on the journey before: there's usually little congestion.