Living Inside a Robot: Value-Sensitive Design for AI-Guided Physical Environment

Abstract

This paper introduces the idea of a robotic home and discusses some ethical aspects of the design for it. “Robotic home” is a version of smart home where the AI systems and the physical devices they control form a functionally integrated whole that is active towards the inhabitant(s). While a smart home has AI applications mainly as tools for convenience, a robotic home is a cluster of both embodied (robotic) and disembodied AI systems that interact with the inhabitant(s) of the home. The context for the discussion is an environment that is designed to assist a person who requires active assistance for everyday life (for instance, for mental health reasons, disability, or old age), and the home itself takes over some functions that enable the everyday life in a desired way. A living environment such as this should be a coherent, functional whole where the different parts of the design serve the specific needs of the inhabitant, as well as moral values such as dignity and autonomy. Aimee Van Wynsberghe’s care centred value-sensitive design model of care robotics is discussed as a starting point for developing a practical ethical framework for designing this environment, including the analysis of personalized needs for assistance, (physical and non-physical) tasks that the robotic home is responsible of, and ethical considerations.