IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Spring 2013 - 63

debate about these issues sooner
rather than later.
Although the primary focus here
is on the ethical implications rather
than the legal implications of robot
behavior, it is clear that there are
important interactions between the
law and ethics that are developing
around robots. Ethical responsibility and legal liability are not the
same thing but they can overlap
and inform one another. Weng and
Zhao, referencing Calo, are particularly interested in how liability for
robot behavior may change when
robots are controlled via the Internet, a situation they are convinced is
inevitable. We discuss this possibility in more detail in the next section,
and we agree with Weng and Zhao
that the introduction of networked
control of robots, particularly control and updates over the Internet,
complicates matters considerably.

Robots and the Internet
There are good reasons to design
a robot so that it can receive electronic transmissions. A networked
robot can communicate remotely
with humans and also with other
machines. Networks that connect with robots can be local (for
example, a swarm of robots communicating with each other over
short range, private connections), or
global (for example, a home protection robot controlled and reporting
over the Internet), or something in
between. The focus here is on robots
that communicate via the Internet,
which perhaps will become the
most common type of networked
robot. A robot with an Internet connection has significant advantages
over a robot without such a connection. It could receive software
and data updates over the Internet.
This could give the robot the capacity to "learn" (in some sense of the
term), improving its usefulness.
A software update might enable a
robot sentry, for example, to detect
a broader range of threats than its
original programming detected.
The potential benefits of such a

connection have led to the formation of roboEarth, "a World Wide
Web for robots: a giant network and
database repository where robots
can share information and learn
from each other about their behavior and their environment."3
As experience with computer
operating systems has shown,
periodic updates help to remedy
glitches and to plug security holes.
Since a "bug-free" program is
extremely unlikely in a machine as
complex as a robot, future versions
of robots will experience software
failure, and an Internet connection
is one way to deal with this eventuality. robots could also be controlled via the Internet by being
"teleprogrammed" or "real realtime teleoperated" [30]. Similarly,
Li and his colleagues describe how
a wireless network could be used to
manage robots working together as
a security team [31].
Connecting a robot to the Internet has significant potential disadvantages as well. The Internet has
already been exploited in countless,
destructive ways from identity theft
and hacking to the distribution of
terrorist propaganda on websites.
The U.N. notes that technologies
such as the Internet certainly do
have beneficial applications, but
they can also contribute to human
rights abuses [32].4 Similarly, a robot
is susceptible to having information
stolen off of its hard drive and to
remote hacking. In addition, software updates could lead to unpredictable, and potentially harmful,
behaviors that would be more difficult to identify if done automatically over the Internet, as opposed
to manually, when a human might
be more likely to be paying attention to possible complications.
3

http://www.roboearth.org/what-is-roboearth,
accessed Mar. 12, 2012.
4
According to the United Nations, "The Internet,
in particular, has been used for the propagation of racism, child pornography and religious
intolerance through the spread of violent, sexist,
pornographic, anti-minority and anti-religious
hate speech and images." [32]

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

SprING 2013

Denning and colleagues discuss
vulnerabilities that can plague
robots intended to be used inside
the home. One of the robots they
examined is the WowWee Rovio,
which can be controlled remotely
over the Internet [33]. They point
out that knowledgeable and
conscientious owners of technology can mitigate the vulnerabilities of an Internet connection by
using appropriate security features,
including password protection
on a wireless network. Moreover, reports indicate that the Wii
remote can be used to command
industrial robots [34]. With some
straightforward modifications, the
remote for the Nintendo Wii game
system can also control military
robots [35]. The widespread availability of Wii controllers will make
them a tempting target for hackers.
Clearly, the "dual use" implications of robots are in our present,
not just our future.
As lessons from how the Internet
has been exploited clearly illustrate,
we should not under-appreciate or
ignore the prospects for misuse of
robots in general, and the misuse
of an Internet-connected or other
type of networked robot in particular. For instance, let's suppose that
robotic sentries are utilized for inhome security monitoring. Assuming they are fairly easy to conceal,
the technology could be used in a
variety of other "off-label" ways
such as convert surveillance, a phenomenon that already occurs with
digital cameras. A sentry could
be placed without permission on
someone else's private property or
in a public gathering area, which
generates nefarious possibilities.
Even if a robot sentry is being
tasked for its intended purpose,
its design may lend itself to being
hacked. If it is capable of receiving
updated "orders" from its human
owner or from its manufacturer, its
security could be compromised by
an outside entity. The specter of a
security robot opening the door
for a burglar, or turning against
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