State-of-the-art review of AI and robotics complete!

The SIENNA team working on ethical, legal and human rights issues of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have conducted a state-of-the-art review of the fields of AI and robotics. The report is now available for download! It offers a thorough analysis of the central concepts, the history, the present and expected technologies and applications of AI and robotics, as well as a socio-economic impact assessment of current and expected technologies used in both fields. The analysis is based on a thorough literature review. We also did interviews with, and received commentaries from, field experts.

Both AI and robotics carry a lot of potential for social, economic and environmental impacts. In our quest to assess the impact on society, we have identified a variety of both positive and negative impact on society, the economy and environment.
The literature review and interviews with experts suggests that the most negative impacts will be brought on by autonomous weapons systems. On the other hand, AI and robotics applications for medical diagnostics will bring the most positive impacts for society. In the report, we also make some suggestions for how the negative impacts can be minimised, and the positive impacts maximised.

We define AI as the science and engineering of machines with capabilities that are considered intelligent by the standard of human intelligence. We define robotics as the design, development and use of electro-mechanical machines with sensors and actuators that can move in their environment and perform intended tasks autonomously or semi-autonomously.

Below, we summarise developments and list a number of applications with potential for future developments in each field. Want more?  Download the full report from our list of publications (Link removed) ! 

Present and future developments in AI

The report describes important developments in AI that are occurring in the following subfields:

• Knowledge representation and automated reasoning
• Artificial neural networks
• Machine learning
• Computer vision
• Computer audition
• Natural language processing
• Expert systems
• Data mining
• Intelligent agent systems and automated planning
• Evolutionary computation

Developments in these subfields have already had a large impact in many AI application domains, and we expect this to continue in the future.

We have also identified a number of application domains as especially important. In the report, we have also detailed the major present and potential future developments in:

• Transportation
• Infrastructure
• Healthcare
• Finance and insurance
• Security (military and law enforcement)
• Retail and marketing
• Media and entertainment
• Science

Present and future developments in robotics

The report describes important developments in robotics that are occurring in the following subfields:

• Robot mechanics
• Robot sensing
• Robot control (including many subareas, such as robot learning, adaptive control, developmental robotics, evolutionary robotics, cognitive robotics, behaviour-based robotics, robotic mapping and planning)
• Robot locomotion
• Bio-inspired and soft robotics
• Humanoid robotics
• Microrobotics
• Nanorobotics
• Beam robotics
• Cloud robotics
• Swarm robotics
• Telerobotics
• Social robotics
• Human-robot interaction.

As with AI, developments in these subfields have and will have significant impact in many robotics application domains. We have identified a number of application domains of robotics as especially important, And in the report, we have also detailed the major present and potential future developments in:

• Transportation
• Security
• Infrastructure
• Healthcare
• Companionship
• Industry
• Discovery
• Service
• Environment
• Agriculture

More state-of-the-art from SIENNA

You can find the state-of-the-art report for AI and robotics in our list of publications (Link removed) , along with reports for the other domains covered by SIENNA: human genomics and human enhancement. For news from SIENNA, sign up to our newsletter (Link removed) .

Download the report (Link removed)

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