Special issue on social impact of AI: killer robots or friendly fridges

摘要

At the 2009 Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour Convention, held in Edinburgh in April 2009, we chaired a vibrant Symposium on the "Social Impact of AI". The intentionally provoking subtitle of "Killer Robots or Friendly Fridges" highlighted the contradictory strands in public attitudes to AI beyond academic research circles. These are fed variously by: almost 100 years of speculative fiction and film; journalistic hyping of sober scientific and engineering advances; along with the slow and prosaic deployment of AI technologies in everyday artefacts.