Speaking to members of EU Parliment Brussels , Workshop on : The Economy of Robots

Speaking to members of EU Parliment Brussels , Workshop on : The Economy of Robots - my slot is "Future Business Operating Models: Planning for Infrastructure and Standards to Foster the Future We Want for Our Children" 9 April 2018, Monday, 14.30 – 17.30 Registration and welcome coffee from 14.00 Networking drinks after 17.30 Language of the event - English

The workshop aims to inform the Members of the European Parliament and all participants about the state of play on the ‘Internet of robots and AI systems’. The workshop will provide insights from experts and give the opportunity to reflect on the different dimensions and possible implications of the emerging disruptive innovation.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/portal/en

In recent years, researchers, media and policy-makers have increasingly focused on the impact of Robotics and AI on our society. It is probably inevitable that the role of robots and machine intelligence will further substantially increase. However, most of the research carried out so far has mainly focused on individual technologies or effects of automation on existing jobs, disregarding the issues and opportunities arising from the very likely advent of an ‘Internet of robots and AI systems’.

This kinds of ‘mistakes’ are not unusual when we try to predict the future. In science fiction movies like the celebrated ‘Blade Runner’ set in a dystopic 2019 Los Angeles, replicants and flying cars are ubiquitous, but there are no cell phones, no social networks, no Internet. Likewise, while we have been so focused on individual robotic hardware, the ability of robots to connect to each other will bring the next disruptive innovation. The smart cities of the future, the supply chains of the future (the direct and reverse logistics networks needed for the transition to the Circular Economy), and the precision agriculture of the future - will all need to be multi-vendor heterogeneous environments where robots, AI systems and humans will have to interact seamlessly.

At the current stage of the development of robotics, it is essential to pay attention to opportunities arising from the ability of cyber-physical systems to communicate and exchange services among themselves.

Technologies used in the world of robots constantly expand the number of decisions that can be taken by each one of them, that in turn increases their level of the autonomy and decreases the role of human operators. Excluding humans from the communication could actually significantly improve the utilization of robots: machines could have the capacity to decide what actions are appropriate even within constantly changing environments. The potential for communication between autonomous agents is most noticeable in such fields as Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things. This is triggered by and leads to multiple technological, legal, social, and cultural innovations, which we would like to discuss during this workshop to better understand the phenomenon we are about to face - the Economy of Robots.

For this workshop, we have invited leading international experts in technology, economy, business, and law, who will elaborate on the scenario where high-level automation spreads through all domains of life, cryptocurrencies become ‘the money for robots’, autonomous agents communicate with each other without human intervention, their capability to earn, store and spend money makes them economically autonomous and regulated by the market and legal rules. For now, such scenario triggers more questions than answers, and, therefore, together we take an inquisitive multidisciplinary look at this complex phenomenon emerging right before our eyes.

#AI #EuropeanParliment