Title: The three laws of robotics revisited

Authors: Uri J. Schild, John Zeleznikow

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel. ' School of Information Systems, Victoria University, P.O. Box 14428, Melbourne City MC, Victoria 8001, Australia

Abstract: The three laws of robotics formulated by Isaac Asimov have attained widespread acceptance in Science Fiction literature. A recent film relates to one of the stories in Asimov|s book. It deals with what seems to be a fundamental problem of discretionary interpretation of the laws by robots. The main object of this paper is to analyse the modelling of judicial discretion by a computer program (in the future perhaps a robot). Only the interpretational aspect of the film is of relevance to this paper. It does not relate to the actions of humans or robots in the film or the present and future feasibility of those actions.

Keywords: conflict of rules; decision support systems; DSS; discretion; legal systems; robots; laws of robotics; judicial discretion; computer programs; Isaac Asimov.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISTA.2008.017271

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications, 2008 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.254 - 270

Published online: 22 Feb 2008 *

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