The Ethical Implications of Humanoid Robots in Society

Abstract: As humanoid robots are being implemented in more and more different fields of
society (healthcare, education, customer service, home) ethical issues related to humanoid robot
deployment are arisen and challenged (Bryson, 2018; Lin, Abney, & Bekey, 2012). This paper
discusses the various ethical implications of humanoid robot deployment in the following areas:
autonomy, responsibility, privacy, emotional attachment, displacement of human labor, social
perceptions and biases toward human-like machines, the legal challenges for ethical design of
and implementation of humanoid robot deployment, and a multidisciplinary analysis of theories
from robotics, philosophy, law, and social sciences relevant to the ethical governance of
humanoid robot deployment (Lin, Abney, & Bekey, 2012; Gunkel, 2018). From a holistic
methodological perspective considering the following aspects: Robotics ethics, philosophical
and sociological perspectives of Humanoid Robots Ethical problems that require human
governance.
The outcome of this paper is a set of frameworks for ethical governance of humanoid robots
that are constructive in the future: ethical governance on the ethical basis of humanoid robot
design (IEEE, 2019).