This document discusses the evolving role of robots in information society. It makes the following key points: 1) Robots are increasingly present in everyday life through appliances, automated teller machines, vacuum cleaners, and more, but their role will expand significantly. 2) Within 20 years, robots and AI may replace half of current jobs and enable totally new industries like automatic waste sorting. Society and industries will need to drastically restructure. 3) The development of autonomous robots and their integration into critical infrastructure also presents serious security and ethical challenges around issues like hacking, privacy, and potential misuse that will require careful regulation and oversight. 4) While robots will disrupt many industries and jobs, their development

1. Information Society Development Centre
Evolving Robots in Information Society
Jyrki J.J. Kasvi

2. Take us prophets with a pinch of salt
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”There is no reason for any individual to have a computer
in their home.”
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"You aren't going to turn passive consumers into active
trollers on the Internet."
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US Department of Defense, 2006
“By 2015–2020 every South Korean household will have a robot and many European, “
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Sir Alan Sugar, 2005
By 2015 one third of US fighting strength will be composed of robots
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Stephen Weiswasser, senior VP, ABC television, 1989
“Next Christmas the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput.”
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Ken Olson, President of DEC, World Future Society Convention, 1977
The Ministry of Information and Communication (South Korea), 2007
When it comes to information society, science fiction has hit the mark much better
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But how about robotics?
Popular culture has formed our attitudes and perceptions on robots and robotic society

3. This (I Robot) is not going to happen, in spite of
fact that there is a forerunner company called iRobot.
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4. Revolution from digital to physical
 Robots have already changed the way live and work but they
have been hidden out of sight in factories
 Just like computers were hidden in computer centers before
invading our homes and lives
 Information society has been the domain of information and
communication technologies
 Robotics breaks the conceptual wall
between digital and physical
 Robots mean we can program
and hack our everyday reality
But is this a robot or just a stupid
machine repeating moves it has
been programmed to do?

5. Robots already present in our lives
 Teller machines have replaced bank clerks
 Remember going to bank every other
day just to get some cash?
 But are teller machines robots or just clever automatons?
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Vacuum cleaners and lawn movers haven been replaced by
simple single task robots
 Well defined limited tasks are the first to be taken over by AI’s
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“Intelligent” washing machines analyze your laundry and
autonomously decide how to wash it
 Intelligent appliances make smart homes

Robot police are coming to our streets
 But aren’t iRobot 510 PackBots just remote controlled machines?
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6. Does military/police iRobot PackBot pack
the same technologies as iRobot Roomba?

7. Robots change our societies beyond recognition
 Productivity explosion corresponding to industrialization
 Stupid industrial jobs are going the way of stupid agricultural jobs
 In 20 years half of current jobs will be replaced by AI’s and robots
 … and agricultural robots are remaking agriculture too

Totally new industries not viable
with human labor
 E.g. automatic waste sorting
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Appliances and machinery become
autonomous and networked
 Your car tells your house that you are
coming home: Warm the sauna.
 Your Polar stress sensor informs the
fridge: Cool another beer.
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ZenRobotics Recycler is a true robot
reacting to its environment instead of
repeating preordained moves.
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8. University of New South Wales
Aseta project
If I were a farmer I would start
taking coding lessons right now

9. Probability * Impact * Disruptivity
 E.g. AI’s in trading of stocks and securities
 Certain: Widely used already
 Strong impact: Squeezes trading cycles to fractions of seconds
 Disruptivity disputed: Market structures have stayed the same, but glitches and
anomalies have shaken world economy several times
 E.g. AI’s in autonomous vehicles
 Very probable: Several prototypes are already on the streets
 Tremendous impact on car industry, logistics, traffic and infrastructure
 Extremely disruptive: The number of vehicles drops dramatically and the
profession of drivers practically disappears.
Google
 Both require regulation, supervision,
legislation and radical restructuring
of related industries and the whole
society.
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10. Luddite backslash to be expected
 Weaving looms of the early 19th century
were 1st generation industrial “robots”
 Again, industries and societies change very
fast when compared to human work life cycles

Not everyone is happy to experience
a new job every few years
 There are still people who take pride in not
knowing how to use a computer
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No company or country can afford to take a breather
 Forerunners reap the spoils and take the risks
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How to dedicate a part of the exploding revenues to finance
social benefits and job training required to restructuring
 … without hampering the deployment of new AI and robot technologies?
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11. People easily see the challenges of technology
but not the smart machines in our daily lives.
Addoz Oy
Addoz automatic medicine dispenser calls
your nurse if you forget to take your pills.

12. From information security to cyber security
 When computers have access to physical reality, information
security becomes literally vital
 The term cyber security is used to make the distinction to merely
digital information security
 Military and criminal possibilities of cyber malware are endless
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Information security of automation
systems is often nonexistent
 Automation systems may be connected
to Internet without any access control!
 A Finnish study found vulnerable
automation systems from power plants,
factories, a prison, a hospital, a bank
and a water purification unit
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Stuxnet woke us to the reality of cyber
warfare and the vulnerability of the
automation systems we rely on.
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13. If someone disables the robots responsible of
food logistics, we end up hungry pretty soon.

14. Hack your bot!
 Harnessing human creativity to find
new robots and robot applications
 Open innovation processes familiar from
CC 3.0 Share Alike Attribution Halftermeyer
open source software may create surprising new applications really fast
 E.g. autonomous drones built from RC plaes and smart phone components
 Commercial uses of robot drones hampered by lack of legislation
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Keep robot technologies and legislation open to tinkerers!
U Cat
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15. U.S. Army Photo
Sukupuolten välinen digikuilu?
Discussion
30.9.2010
www.kasvi.org
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