The Government of the Russian Federation adopted the Concept for the Development of Regulation of Relations in the Sphere of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Technologies until 2024 . The concept stipulates that the development of such technologies “should be based on basic ethical standards.” These norms are listed in the concept. Some of them are very similar to the famous laws of robotics, formulated by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. We compared Azimov’s robotics laws with the ethical norms proposed by the government.

ASIMOV’S LAWS OF ROBOTICS

RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT CONCEPT

Priority of human well-being and safety, protection of his fundamental rights and freedoms (the goal of ensuring human well-being and safety should prevail over other goals of the development and application of artificial intelligence systems and robotics)

1. A robot cannot harm a person or, by its inaction, allow a person to be harmed

Prohibition of harm initiated by artificial intelligence systems and robotics (as a general rule, the development, circulation and use of artificial intelligence and robotics systems that are capable of purposefully causing harm to humans on their own initiative should be limited)

2. The robot must obey all orders given by a person, except when these orders are contrary to the first law

Human control (to the extent that this is possible, taking into account the required degree of autonomy of artificial intelligence and robotics systems and other circumstances)

3. The robot must take care of its safety to the extent that it does not contradict the first or second laws

Designed compliance with the law, including safety requirements (the use of artificial intelligence systems should not knowingly lead to a violation of legal norms for the developer)

Prevention of unlawful manipulation of human behavior

• The concept developers took only half of Asimov’s first law of robotics. In Russia, a robot can calmly watch the death of people: it is only forbidden to purposefully harm them.
• In the concept of the government, there is absolutely no analogue of Azimov’s third law of robotics. Robots are not obligated to take care of their own safety.
• Finally, artificial intelligence must operate within the law . For example, to honor the updated Constitution – in particular, he will not be able to call for the alienation of part of the territory of the Russian Federation. That is, developers of robot assistants like Siri and Alice will have to check how their brainchild answers the question: “Whose Crimea?”
• (C)MEDUZA 2020