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Assessing the Japanese Turn in AI and Robot Ethics: Extracting Meaningful Principles Between Exoticism and Empiricism in the Case of AIBO

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Human-Centric Computing in a Data-Driven Society (HCC 2020)

Part of the book series: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology ((IFIPAICT,volume 590))

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Abstract

The present paper critically examines a recent recurrent pattern of Western scholarship of importing sets of Japanese ethics in artificial intelligence/data/robot ethics contexts without a deeper examination of their meaning and value. The paper’s outline is unfolded as such: (1) We draw on material stemming from an ethnographic participant-observer study that followed a debate between Western and Japanese people confronting the robotic AI pet AIBO. (2) We demarcate how many of the proposed Japanese values are practically relevant to the examination of human-robot interaction and how this feeds into existing questions about privacy and safety, in the context of a global overwhelming AI hype and narrative bias. (3) Finally, we discuss how a long history of Western enthusiasm and occasional misunderstandings of Japanese values comes full circle with the recent trend, and we conclude with a set of open questions that require more dedicated empirical research in order to reach more proper and practical value system in the future design of technology.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There is plenty of work to be done given that the variety of technologies and applications conveniently currently placed under terms such as “data,” “AI,” “robot,” “algorithm,” that can be interpreted with an ever-increasing flexibility and unclear boundaries. The many understandings of other umbrella terms such as “ethics,” “justice,” “fairness,” “responsibility,” and the like, only make the situation more difficult and vague.

  2. 2.

    Perhaps with the exception of algorithmic-based decision-making and injustice.

  3. 3.

    The broader ethnographic project of which a segment is used in the present paper, also involves the experimental stage of a robotic cat that is to be discussed in future work.

  4. 4.

    Given that this section expresses the ethnographic observations by one of the two authors, we use first-person singular to retain the personal experience where appropriate.

  5. 5.

    Acknowledging several misleading anthropomorphisations, we stress by the use of inverted commas the strictly metaphorical use of human faculties (e.g. thinking, deciding, perceiving) that are used to express briefly their symbolic representation in computational languages.

  6. 6.

    Although, a sociology of AI/data/robot ethics is lacking; and is beyond this paper’s scope.

  7. 7.

    Cf. Hearn’s comment on Japanese kindness being “poisoned” only in ports where locals came in contact with European tradespersons.

  8. 8.

    The literature on privacy challenges mutually shaped by technological advances is constantly renewed [52].

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Acknowledgements

Vassilis Galanos is indebted to Prof アスキュー 里枝 (Rie Askew) and his doctoral student Phan who, after request over email communication, scanned the rare 1949 article on Hearn’s Ethics by Allen Tuttle. He is further grateful to Mireille Hildebrandt for kindly sharing her book’s chapter on Japanese Ethics after a great conversation; to Giulia De Togni for sharing her experiences of Japan, recommending Roboticus Japanicus. We are grateful to the two anonymous referees whose careful comments we have taken into account. Nonetheless, we retain full responsibility for any omissions and unclarified passages. No grants have been received for the completion of this paper.

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  1. Science, Technology and Innovation Studies Subject Group, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, Old Surgeons’ Hall, Edinburgh, EH1 1LZ, UK

    Vassilis Galanos

  2. Applied Anthropology and Japanese Studies, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan

    Mary Reisel

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  1. Vassilis Galanos
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Correspondence to Vassilis Galanos .

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  1. University of Salford, Salford, UK

    David Kreps

  2. Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan

    Taro Komukai

  3. Anna University, Chennai, India

    T. V. Gopal

  4. Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan

    Kaori Ishii

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Galanos, V., Reisel, M. (2020). Assessing the Japanese Turn in AI and Robot Ethics: Extracting Meaningful Principles Between Exoticism and Empiricism in the Case of AIBO. In: Kreps, D., Komukai, T., Gopal, T.V., Ishii, K. (eds) Human-Centric Computing in a Data-Driven Society. HCC 2020. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 590. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62803-1_12

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