Do robots need to be treated with compassion?

Merging living and non-living entities in hybrid robotics might pose many risks, including ethical considerations of interactions with semi-living robots.

Robots are not all wires and metal. In recent years, scientists have made impressive progress in robotics, combining living materials and organisms with synthetic robotic components.

The use of real, biological materials allows robots to heal themselves and adapt to natural environments, which can be incredibly useful when combined with the strength and robustness of synthetic systems.

Bio-hybrid robots using living muscles can crawl, swim, grip, pump, and sense their surroundings. Sensors made from sensory cells or insect antennae can improve their chemical sensing.

However, from the science fiction of Blade Runner to academic scholars, many have pondered the potential ethical challenges that merging living and nonliving entities might raise.

In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Multidisciplinary researchers at the University of Southampton have analyzed potential ethical dilemmas in bio-hybrid robotics, calling for regulation to guide responsible and ethical development of the technology.

According to the authors, biohybrid robots raise questions about the integrity of life, the status and rights of semi-living beings, and the potential long-term impacts on natural ecosystems.

Dr. Rafael Mestre from the University of Southampton, who specializes in emergent technologies and is co-lead author of the paper, said in a press release: "The challenges in overseeing bio-hybrid robotics are not dissimilar to those encountered in the regulation of biomedical devices, stem cells, and other disruptive technologies.”

“But unlike purely mechanical or digital technologies, bio-hybrid robots blend biological and synthetic components in unprecedented ways. This presents unique possible benefits but also potential dangers," he added.

The paper's authors identified three key areas where bio-hybrid robotics presents ethical issues. The first one is the robots' interaction with humans and the environment. The second one is integrability – how and whether humans might assimilate bio-robots, such as bio-robotic organs or limbs. The third one is moral status.

In a series of thought experiments, researchers simulated the ethical dilemmas posed by hybrid robotics. For example, creating bio-robots would inevitably involve the exploitation of living nature to obtain the materials needed to create such robots.

Furthermore, such technology as a bio-hybrid robotic arm might exacerbate inequalities between humans.

Merging living and nonliving is also troublesome from the interactions with human perspectives. Bio-robots blur the line between an object and a living entity.

Humans presented with the possibility of creating sentient living entities might need to follow ethics applicable to living creatures, like avoiding unnecessary harm to biorobots and promoting virtues like kindness and compassion. Then, the question arises whether creating sentient beings for labor and serving humans is ethical?

“While we cannot deny that the concept of biohybrid robotics has been part of our collective imaginations in science fiction, the public’s reaction to the transition of this technology from fiction to reality, especially when considering nonanthropomorphic forms of biohybrid robots, remains to be seen,” write the researchers in the paper.

In a press release, Dr. Matt Ryan, a political scientist and co-author of the paper, said: "If debates around embryonic stem cells, human cloning, or artificial intelligence have taught us something, it is that humans rarely agree on the correct resolution of the moral dilemmas of emergent technologies.

"Compared to related technologies such as embryonic stem cells or artificial intelligence, bio-hybrid robotics has developed relatively unattended by the media, the public, and policymakers, but it is no less significant. We want the public to be included in this conversation to ensure a democratic approach to the development and ethical evaluation of this technology."

The paper proposes several requirements for an ethical framework that should applied in the development of hybrid robotics, including risk assessments, consideration of social implications, and increasing public awareness and understanding.