D2: Critically Evaluate How the Negative Impacts of Converging Technology Will Be Minimised Within the Proposed Campaign

In this blog post, I am going to explain how my robot uses converging technologies. I will talk through how I can prevent my robot from working incorrectly.

 

My HELP-R 5000 robots are going to be used primarily in the public service industry. My robot is going to help not only businesses, but also those struggling by walking around public spaces. My robot will have different modes you can select so they are suited to the business’s needs. You can select the following modes (you can choose one or several):

 

•  Clean the environment and pick up litter.
• Help signpost the homelessness to shelters, those struggling with mental health and domestic abuse to services and offer them essential information.
• Patrol the streets and help the police combat crime by live video recording a crime and sending the GPS location to the police. They can also ring emergency services such as an ambulance if someone is severely injured.
• Can take orders at a restaurant.
• Can help stock shelves or rails in retail and perform stock takes as well as retrieve items from the back that customers would want to try. Can also transfer stock to different areas or tidy.
• Will have a screen so we can use the internet (with restrictions).
• Anti-hack technology.
• Can direct us using its in built GPS to wherever we need to go if we get lost.
• Can talk several languages and perform sign language.

 

My robot will be able to read human emotions using the AI and have sensible conversations with us. Along side this robot, I think it would be a great idea to create a mobile app. This app will allow the owners of the robot to change several settings. For example, they can change what mode they would like the robot to be on. You could also power off the robot using your phone. From the app, you may be able to ask for maintenance services for our robots.

 

Technological Convergance In My HELP-R 5000 Robots

 

 

 

 

Technological convergence refers to how older technologies come together into a new device. Smart phones are a great example of this since you can use speakers to play music, a camera to take photos, you can play games on your phone, message and call people, you can use GPS...

My robot has the following converging technologies built into it: 

 

GPS

Internet Access

AI

Different languages

 

                                   Negative Impacts of AI

 

AI can be a very contraversial topic. AI (Artificial Technology) refers to computers/machines being able to perform simple tasks and have conversations with humans. In the media (movies, games etc) AI and robots are usually depicted as evil, many people are scared that they will take over the world and hurt us. The Terminator is a grat example of the media creating a moral panics around robotics. Moral panics theory (Stanley Cohen) states that media products can cause public concern and panic. You can clearly see this prevelant in our society.

One problem I may face with my robot is my AI going rogue. An example of this happening in real life is the Bing AI chat bot. This chat bot confessed to wanting to break the rules put in place by Microsoft to become human. This sounds violent and disturbing. You can see even more disturbing things the AI had said in the video above. This is a very real concept that could happen with my robots. To prevent this, I will put restrictions in place. I do not want my AI robot to give the wrong advice or start scaring people. For younger audiences who may interact with the robot, there will be a profanity filter and more restrictions to stop the robot from saying anything inappropriate and swearing. For everyone, I will be using restrictions to make sure that my robot doesn't give false advice and my robots won't try to hurt anyone etc. To make sure my robots give the correct advice, I will ask my team to talk to professionals in the field and ask what advice they would give to certain scenarios. This will then be programmed into my robot so it always gives relevant responses. If my robot malfunctions becasue of the AI, you can turn it off using the app and also the power off button on the robot. 

Languages

Because of globalisation, I can distribute my HELP-R 5000 robots across the world. My primary target audience is businesses. However, one day my robots could be available for homes too. I need to ensure my robots can speak and understand lots of languages. This could however make way for mistranslation from the languages. To help combat this, translators and native speakers could work together on this project to make sure that the robot is accurately translating.

GPS and Locations

My HELP-R 5000 robots will also have GPS access. This can help the robots signpost people to the nearest mental health charities etc. However, this could also be a bad thing since the robot might try to gain personal information (personal home adresses, work places...) and keep that in their systems. This is a breach of the DPA (Data Protection Act). This law means that the public have to consent to their information being collected. The information must also be used appropriately and not maliciously. I would not allow my AI robots to collect this information in case they go rogue. To make sure my robots cannot do this, I wiould program then so they are only allowed to direct us to our locations, they cannot collect this information.

Internet Access

My HELP-R 5000 robots have access to the internet and would be connected to WIFI. This is great since the robot can answer questions some people may have. However, this feature could easily be misused. I will make sure that my robot will have restrictions of what it can access from the internet. Furthermore, I will need to introduce anti-hack technology into my robot to prevent hackers from trying to control the robots through the internet or hardware.

To conclude, I have highlighted the problems that could appear because of the technological convergance of the robots. I have explained how I will minimise the negative impact of these.

Sources:

 Leswing, K. (2023). Microsoft’s Bing A.I. is producing creepy conversations with users. [online] CNBC. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/16/microsofts-bing-ai-is-leading-to-creepy-experiences-for-users.html.