Ethics Untangled
Ethics Untangled is a series of conversations about the ethical issues that affect all of us, with academics who have spent some time thinking about them. It is brought to you by the IDEA Centre, a specialist unit for teaching, research, training and consultancy in Applied Ethics at the University of Leeds.
Find out more about IDEA, including our Masters programmes in Healthcare Ethics and Applied and Professional Ethics, our PhDs and our consultancy services, here:
ahc.leeds.ac.uk/ethics
Ethics Untangled is edited by Mark Smith at Leeds Media Services.
Music is by Kate Wood.
Ethics Untangled
3. Can Humans and Robots Be Friends? With Ruby Hornsby
Ruby Hornsby is a PhD student at the IDEA Centre. Her research is about 'artificial friends' - robots and their interactions with humans - and whether these interactions can be part of a good human life. What do we get out of friendship and how much of that is possible when the supposed friend we're talking about is not a person with an inner life of their own, but an artificial being that has been programmed to act in a friendly way towards us? And what if our interactions with robots are a bit like our interactions with fictional characters? Does this mean we can't have friendships with them, or is there some form of quasi-friendship that might still be possible, and might have something to offer us? And what about the ethics of these relationships? Do we leave ourselves open to exploitation or deception by entering into them?
Some links:
Ai-Da House of Lords (2022)
Care homes and social robots (2020)
Sex robots and companionship (2023)
Research Ruby did alongside IDEA's Natasha McKeever on sex robots (2022)
Book your place at our public event with Gavin Esler, "Dead Cats, Strategic Lying and Truth Decay", here.
Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.
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