Seminar: Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

Seminar Description

Research in robotics and artificial intelligence has made enormous progress in recent years. These rapid developments are causing increasing interest in industry. As a result, more and more developed concepts are increasingly being used in industry and, thus, in products for everyday life. As a result, robotic systems and systems that are based on or leverage artificial intelligence algorithms already have a considerable influence on humanity, and it is to be expected that this influence will increase in the near future. Many of these systems are also already firmly integrated into our everyday lives. And since these already established systems have an increasing degree of autonomy, this raises fundamental questions about what we should do with them, what we should let them do themselves, what risks they pose and how we can control them.

In this seminar, we will provide an introduction into ethical considerations and societal impact of robotics and artificial intelligence, including topics such as their impact on working conditions, consequences of bias in robotics and artificial intelligence systems, and autonomous weapon systems. You will study recent research papers on these topics on your own, present your results and lead a discussion on the topic with your fellow students. After your presentation, you will write a report that discusses the findings of your literature research, open questions that you see unanswered, and reflects upon the group discussion. In the course of this seminar, you will also have the opportunity to attend lectures by experts in the field. For this seminar, meetings will only take place if there are presentations by students or invited speakers. This is an interdisciplinary seminar offered in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science.