Confucianism offers an alternative

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The analysis, conducted by a Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researcher, appears in ACM Communicationspublished by the Association for Computing Machinery.

“People are concerned about the risks of granting rights to robots,” says Tae Wan Kim, associate professor of business ethics at CMU’s Tepper School of Business, who conducted the analysis. “Granting rights is not the only way to address the moral status of robots: imagining robots as ritual bearers, not rights bearers, might work better.”

While many believe that respecting robots should lead to granting them rights, Kim advocates a different approach. Confucianism, an ancient Chinese belief system, focuses on the social value of achieving harmony; individuals are made distinctively human by their ability to conceive interests not purely in terms of personal self-interest, but in terms that include a relational and communal self. This, in turn, requires a unique perspective on ritual, with people improving themselves morally by participating in proper rituals.

In considering robots, Kim suggests that the Confucian alternative of assigning rites, or what he calls role obligations, to robots is more appropriate than granting them rights. The concept of rights is often contradictory and competitive, and the potential conflict between humans and robots is worrisome.

“Assigning role obligations to robots fosters teamwork, which triggers an understanding that fulfilling those obligations must be done harmoniously,” explains Kim. “Artificial intelligence (AI) mimics human intelligence, so for robots to develop as rite bearers, they must be powered by a type of AI that can mimic humans’ ability to recognize and execute activities on equipment, and a machine can learn that ability in various ways.”

Kim acknowledges that some may wonder why robots should be treated with respect in the first place. “To the extent that we make robots in our image, if we don’t treat them well, as entities capable of participating in rites, we degrade ourselves,” she suggests.

Various non-natural entities, such as corporations, are considered persons and even assume some constitutional rights. Furthermore, humans are not the only species with moral and legal status; In most developed societies, moral and legal considerations prevent researchers from freely using animals for laboratory experiments.