Applied Ethics and Sustainability: Should Robots Replace Humans?

Running Head: APPLIED ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
APPLIED ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
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APPLIED ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
The Ethical Question
The Ethical Question in consideration is whether Robots should replace humans in future and
whether the actions of Robots will encompass moral standards.
Background
Robots empowered by artificial intelligence have been proven to be very efficient in
conducting all kinds of operations that were being done by humans till date. Detecting fraud,
conducting research, optimization of logistics translating languages can all be done by robots in
the modern era of technological advancement (Russell and Norvig, 2016). These Robots, driven
by artificial intelligence aim to revolutionize the modern society. Tech giants such Microsoft,
Amazon, IBM and Facebook have been conducting research in the field of artificial intelligence
and believe that artificial intelligence has enormous potential to revolutionize the world.
However, with the advent of this rapidly emerging technology, several ethical issues have
surfaced. The question of whether robots empowered by such artificial intelligence will be able
to make ethical decisions has been raised. People are worried about the lack of empathy of the
machines and are questioning whether the actions of the machines will be guided by the moral
principles (Bostrom and Yudkowsky 2014). Another question that has surfaced is how should
robots be punished if they violate any of the duties assigned or fail to act according to moral
standards. Robots replacing humans could even have adverse effects on humanity. If the jobs
that are performed by humans are replaced by Robots, many people could lose their jobs. Since
the cost of employment is rising all over the world, replacing workers in factories with robots
would lower the cost of manufacturing and production. However, interaction between humans
and robots has brought many legal implication and considerations upon the employers. Such

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APPLIED ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
employers will incur the liability risk and liability for malfunctioning of such robots (Parviainen
and Pirhonen 2017). The best example that can be given in this context is the concept of driver
less, automatic cars (Lin 2016). In case of any mechanical failure resulting in an accident wide
number of stakeholders will face liability. It can further be said that deploying Robots in a
human work place also raises issues of workplace health and safety.
Identifying the relevant facts related to the ethical issue
Some of the facts that are relevant to the ethical issue and must be discussed in context of the
analysis are:
 Unemployment- The hierarchy of labor will be the worst affected due to the increase
in automation. Work involving intensive physical labor has been automated by
humans since the time of the industrial revolution so that humans could engage in far
more complex tasks such as administrative and strategic work in the globalized society
(www.theregister.co.uk 2018). One of the examples that can be given in this context is
the trucking industry in the United States of America. It has been promised by the
company Tesla that self driven trucks will be widely available in the next ten years.
This has raised an important question. What is expected to happen to those employed
in the Trucking Industry? Most of the population still earns a living by selling their
time with increase in automation many of the people would become unemployed.
 Inequality- It has been assessed that significant increase in automation will create
economic inequality among the people. The economic system of the society in reality
is based on compensation to the people for actively contributing to the economy
(www.theregister.co.uk 2018) However, substituting people with robots will give