Every career has a story. This series highlights careers that are old, new, obscure, or trending in the engineering and tech worlds.
Curiosity, meet career discovery. 🤝
Robotics ethicists sit at the intersection of technology and philosophy. Additional areas of overlap include law, AI, advocacy, policy, and social science.
The ethical considerations are a huge part of a robotics ethicist role: what are the limits to decision making and use by a robot? This could also include autonomous vehicles and drones. Policies around these limits can have a major impact on companies, governments, and industry associations. Communication becomes critical in this work as the need to advocate, educate and dissimenate research that supports changes in policies, laws, and professional frameworks increases.
In addition to Universities and major research organizations, robotics ethicists may be hired by government organizations, think tanks, ethical use of AI non-profits and associations, as well as large tech companies. This niche and unique role is not without current trends and challenges to focus on: AI bias, robotics in healthcare and medicine, autonomous weapons, and data privacy are all at the forefront of this work.
Want to learn more about this role and the work behind it?
- Science News Today article, Ethical Concers in Robotics: A Discussion
- Number Analytics article, Navigating Ethics Boards in Robotics
- LinkedIn Article by Majid Basharat, Ethics in Robotics: Balancing Innovation with Responsibility
- University of San Diego, The Importance of AI Ethicists and How to Become One
- STEMpower, Become a Robot Ethicist
- IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
