Robots in a Civilized Society: Should Robots Be Taught to Adhere to Social Norms?

Abstract

Social norms, often described as the “cement” or “grammar” of society, guide human behavior and infuse it with social meaning. In this Chapter, we offer a legal perspective on whether robots should be required to adhere to social norms in the context of human-robot interactions (HRIs). To do so, we examine how the mass introduction of social robots may affect existing norms in different contexts, develop a taxonomy of HRIs as they pertain to social norms, and offer a legal-normative framework of analysis to determine whether and to what extent should robots be legally required to adhere to social norms.