Robots being built that lie to you...

Getting kids to stop lying is hard enough, now engineers are building robots specifically programmed to lie.

No doubt those in the field of ethics are ready to tear their hair out.

Robots are being built that happily lie to each other…and that’s pretty bad…but now comes the revelation that robots have been constructed to become crafty, shifty-eyed, weaselly, pathological liars to each other and to human beings.

Why robotics engineers are building lying robots

The answer to why robots should lie—according to Ronald Arkin, a Regents professor in the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing—is that lying robots are necessary and inevitable.

One example that Arkin cites where a deceptive robot will be necessary is during the possible rescue of a human by a robot. The search-and-rescue robot may have to have the ability to deceive a panicking human to facilitate the rescue. Lies may calm the victim or reduce further panic that could jeopardize the rescue effort.

Arkin was directly involved in a lying-robot project. It may seem humorous on the surface, but the long-range implications and ramifications could be quite frightening…for humans.

Robots might be quite pleased with it as it places them on an equal footing with all the other lying miscreants roaming the planet.

It used to be that, if anything, you could trust a robot. Now look what the robot engineers are doing!

Go to entire Helium article here.

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