Using Google, I can find several news stories referring to:
A British government report that speculates that Robots may one day demand rights, and we may have to give them those rights.
A South Korean government committee which has drawn up a document suggesting what ethical principles should be in place concerning the use of robots, including apparently comments about what rights they should be accorded.
But I can’t find any links to the actual documents referred to. I can just find stories about them.
Anyone know where I can find the documents themselves? I need to read them and cite them directly.
The 7th paragraph mentions that scientists in South Korea in August 2007 drew up a ‘Robot Ethics Charter’
The British Governments UK Office of Science and Innovation’s Horizon Scanning Centre commissioned the research. In total there are 246 summary papers, including the above report, called the Sigma and Delta scans, and were compiled by futures researchers, Outsights-Ipsos Mori partnership and the US-based Institute for the Future (IFTF). The two scans were combined together and can be found here: http://www.sigmascan.org/
I can’t find the South Korea’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy report just article after article say that it is going to be published.
The British and South Korea Governments are not alone issuing reports on robots according to this blog: Thought Capital - Framing Frankenstein: Coding Ethics for robots. It says that The European Robotics Research Network produced a Roboethics Roadmap and the Japan is issuing Draft Guidelines to Secure the Safe Performance of Next Generation Robots.
I looked all over the Sigmascan website you referred to and couldn’t find the information to that effect. Sorry to be dense, but could you tell me how you found documentation about who comissioned the research?