Since it's Sunday I'll only comment only on the “Asimov Three Laws of Robotics” portion of your remarks. Well, because its Sunday AND because I agree with the points you make in your comment.

That said… As Asimov fan how could you have overlooked his fourth or to be more accurate his “Zeroith (0th) Law of Robotics“? The 0th Law comes before all the other Laws and says: “A robot must not merely act in the interests of individual humans, but of all humanity.”

FWIW – The “Zeroth Law” made sense in the way Asimov's presented it but was totally misinterpreted (in a negative, evil way) in the movie adaptation of “I Robot”.

Why would we want to limit the research? Research is different than actually distributing and deploying such systems in the real world. I think we would want to do all the research we can so we can see what limits.

I have always thought that Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics have made the most sense:

1.) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2.) A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3.) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Being a big science fiction fan I think we (in the broadest use of that term- from scientists to sociologists) should turn to sci-fi to (for alck of a better phrase) “learn lessons already learned”. But only as a beginning. The term “truth is stranger than fiction” also comes to mind and there will be many, many developments and human interactions in every day life that will need to be discussed.

Personally I'm all for robots that can help us. But we also need to research and advance their capabilities. Even if we don't use their capabilities, some other country will one day use them against us and we need to be prepared.

To not research the technology around AI and robots would be akin to having the knowledge to develop guns, but we choosing not to do so because we thought some of our citizens might use them in crimes or accidently shoot themselves. In the meantime the military in the country on the other side of the river developed guns, then semi-automatics and then Uzis. One day we got into a spat with them, but because we didn't have guns (or just crude ones) we're left defenseless when our enemy brought out their guns and mowed us down.

So if we don't choose to develop the AI or robots in this country (or at least do the research and get the patent/intellectual rights), some other country most certainly will and then we will be behind. Not that patent or intellectual rights would be an excuse for a country intent on using something as a military application. But owning the rights would at least give us some economic protection, in that we laid claim to “it” first and some other country would not be making millions (or billions) off of it.

We currently control the development here and it's important to do it thoughtfully and right. Otherwise we'll lose out… if not to “the machines” then we would lose out to other countries.

I can't tell you how funny I think that is, it somehow clicked with my sense of humor. Just the image alone…. Thanks!