科學家呼籲以符合倫理方式使用機器人
The rapid movement of robots “out of factories to automate all aspects of our lives” has prompted an international group of scientists, engineers and ethicists to set up a body to examine their impact.
在工廠以外正給我們生活各個領域帶來自動化的機器人的快速發展，促使一個由科學家、工程師和倫理學家組成的全球團體建立一個機構來考察機器人的影響。
The Foundation for Responsible Robotics, launched in London, will encourage governments and industry to consider the impact of the technology on society, ranging from the potential for mass unemployment to human rights violations. Researchers and policymakers have so far ignored the field, say the founders.
這家機構名爲“負責任機器人學基金會”（The Foundation for Responsible Robotics），在倫敦創建，將鼓勵政府和行業考慮科技對社會的影響，包括從大規模失業的可能性到違反人權。這些創始人表示，研究人員和政策制定者迄今一直忽視該領域。
“We are rushing headlong into the robotics revolution without consideration for the many unforeseen problems lying around the corner,” said Noel Sharkey, robotics professor at Sheffield University and chairman of the foundation. “It is time now to step back and think hard about the future of the technology before it sneaks up and bites us.”
“我們正草率地進入機器人革命，沒有考慮未來很多不可預見的問題，”謝菲爾德大學(Sheffield University)機器人科學教授、該基金會董事長諾埃爾夏基(Noel Sharkey)表示，“現在我們該回過頭去，在這種技術走近並影響我們之前認真思考它的未來了。”
Although industrial robots working in factories have historically dominated robotics, the balance is changing fast as service sectors automate. The world already has 12m service robots, compared with 1.5m industrial robots, Prof Sharkey said. The International Federation for Robotics predicts that the number of service robots will rise to 31m by 2018.
儘管在工廠工作的工業機器人一直在機器人領域佔據主導地位，但隨着服務行業的自動化，這種平衡正迅速發生變化。夏基教授表示，全球已擁有1200萬臺服務業機器人，而工業機器人爲150萬臺。國際機器人聯合會(International Federation for Robotics)預測，到2018年，服務業機器人數量將增至3100萬臺。
Robots are beginning to entertain and care for children and old people, they are preparing food and cooking in restaurants, cleaning homes, milking cows and killing in armed conflict — defence is the biggest non-industrial user of robots.
機器人正開始爲兒童和老人提供娛樂和照管服務，它們還在餐廳準備食品和烹飪、保潔、擠奶以及在武裝衝突中殺人，國防領域是非工業行業使用機器人最多的行業。
The nature of the human brain means that we cannot help treating robots as other people — or at least as living animals — to which we quickly grow attached, said Prof Seibt. That “anthropomorphism” makes people protect their favourite robots if they are threatened, even at the expense of other human beings. “Soldiers are prepared to risk their lives to protect a robot,” she said.
丹麥奧胡斯大學(Aarhus University)的教授喬安娜嬠布特(Johanna Seibt)表示，人腦的特點意味着，我們不得不將機器人視爲其他人（至少是活着的動物），我們與它們的親密關係迅速增進。“擬人化”讓人們會在機器人受到威脅時保護他們最愛的機器人，甚至不惜犧牲其他人的生命。她表示：“士兵們可能會準備用他們的生命來保護一個機器人。”
There are similar concerns are the impact of robotic companions at the other end of life — how will they affect the ability of young children to interact and make friends with real people?
類似的擔憂還有機器人同伴對於生活的影響，它們是否會影響兒童與真人互動和交朋友的能力。
