Robots and the Internet: Causes for Concern

A subset of networked robots, those that are designed to be connected to the Internet, are causes for concern. As robots become more sophisticated, the complexity of their underlying software and control systems have to be taken into consideration. After gaining control of a robot, hackers could then use that robot (or group of robots) for malicious ends. 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, improving its usefulness. 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. One way to avoid unintentional harm is to carefully consider potential impacts on all those affected by decisions made during design and implementatin.