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The Robot Wars judge who says we’ve plenty to gain from relinquishing some control to the machines in our lives

17 January 2018

The increasing role of artificial intelligence in our world raises plenty of ethical questions in the media.

Anything that processes information and acts in a way that is not predicable, I would call that a robot
Sethu Vijayakumar

Sethu Vijayakumar, owner of one of the coolest job titles in the world, Professor of Robotics at the University of Edinburgh, can see both sides of the debate.

‘If you give the robot more autonomy then it has the capability to correct for errors and deal with the mistakes humans may make. On the flipside, you will have less ultimate control over the actions of the robot.’

‘We want to create systems that are self learning and self improving but if you devolve significant autonomy to the system then the behaviour of the robot becomes less predicable.’

Ultimately though, Prof Vijayakumar thinks there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful about the rise of robots in our life:

1. Growing our grub

There will be more technology in agriculture

‘We have a growing population.’

‘We need to be able to feed people in a safe and sustainable way.’

‘Robots are playing a significant role in creating capabilities and technologies that will help us grow vegetables and fruits in a much more sustainable and green way, by targeting weeds in a very selective way rather than mass spraying of insecticides.’

2. Infastructure impact

We’ll need help managing the world we have built

‘We are building massive infrastructures all around the world.’

‘We are building up our world to look more and more complicated; transport systems, underground, bridges, undergrounds.’

‘We've got to the stage where it's physically impossible for humans to map and repair and maintain these facilities, so we need robots to be able to do that.’

3. Health helper

Robots might mean we need less human help

‘How will we live healthily as the age expectancy grows up?’

‘We don't want to be lying in bed waiting for our death.’

‘Robotics is going to play a significant role in making us more self-sufficient in those kind of scenarios, replacing body parts that are starting to fail, increasing the quality of your life towards the end of your life.’

4. Careful cars

Technology has advanced a long way since the era of the car phone

‘People think of autonomous driving cars as a novelty, you can sit and read in the back.’

‘It's about more than that.’

’It's about managing carbon emissions, managing congestion, managing transport issues, and reducing fatalities.’

‘So more than the fanciful reason that you can do more interesting things while the car is driving itself. It's part of the solution, for example, to global warming.’

Robot Wars

But there are definitely fearsome creations out there though. Prof Vijayakumar sees them up close as the newest judge on Robot Wars.

Sethu Vijayakumar talks Robot Wars

Robot Wars judge Sethu Vijayakumar its he had to watch old episodes on YouTube

Thor’s armour looks much stronger, and he has shored up the defence with a low lying scooper that hugs the ground, not to mention having 5 interchangeable axes.
Prof Vijayakumar

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