Search

This paper examines the question of how generative AI can improve the well-being of blind or visually impaired people. It refers to a current example, the Be My Eyes app, in which the Be My AI feature was integrated in 2023, which is based on GPT-4 from OpenAI. The author's tests are described and evaluated. There is also an ethical and social discussion. The power of the tool, which can analyze still images in an amazing way, is demonstrated. Those affected gain a new independence and a new perception of their environment. At the same time, they are dependent on the world view and morality of the provider or developer, who prescribe or deny them certain descriptions. An outlook makes it clear that the analysis of moving images will mean a further leap forward. It is fair to say that generative AI can fundamentally improve the well-being of blind and visually impaired people and will change it in various ways., Comment: 7 pages

This paper addresses the question of how bar robots can contribute to the well-being of guests. It first develops the basics of service robots and social robots. It gives a brief overview of which gastronomy robots are on the market. It then presents examples of bar robots and describes two models used in Switzerland. A research project at the School of Business FHNW collected empirical data on them, which is used for this article. The authors then discuss how the robots could be improved to increase the well-being of customers and guests and better address their individual wishes and requirements. Artificial intelligence can play an important role in this. Finally, ethical and social problems in the use of bar robots are discussed and possible solutions are suggested to counter these., Comment: 10 pages

This paper addresses the question of how to increase the acceptability of a robot hug and whether such a hug contributes to well-being. It combines the lead author's own research with pioneering research by Alexis E. Block and Katherine J. Kuchenbecker. First, the basics of this area are laid out with particular attention to the work of the two scientists. The authors then present HUGGIE Project I, which largely consisted of an online survey with nearly 300 participants, followed by HUGGIE Project II, which involved building a hugging robot and testing it on 136 people. At the end, the results are linked to current research by Block and Kuchenbecker, who have equipped their hugging robot with artificial intelligence to better respond to the needs of subjects., Comment: 10 pages

Semi-autonomous machines, autonomous machines and robots inhabit closed, semi-closed and open environments, more structured environments like the household or more unstructured environments like cultural landscapes or the wilderness. There they encounter domestic animals, farm animals, working animals, and wild animals. These creatures could be disturbed, displaced, injured, or killed by the machines. Within the context of machine ethics and social robotics, the School of Business FHNW developed several design studies and prototypes for animal-friendly machines, which can be understood as moral and social machines in the spirit of these disciplines. In 2019-20, a team led by the main author developed a prototype robot lawnmower that can recognize hedgehogs, interrupt its work for them and thus protect them. Every year many of these animals die worldwide because of traditional service robots. HAPPY HEDGEHOG (HHH), as the invention is called, could be a solution to this problem. This article begins by providing an introduction to the background. Then it focuses on navigation (where the machine comes across certain objects that need to be recognized) and thermal and image recognition (with the help of machine learning) of the machine. It also presents obvious weaknesses and possible improvements. The results could be relevant for an industry that wants to market their products as animal-friendly machines., Comment: 6 pages

Dead, extinct, and endangered languages have been preserved primarily through audio conservation and the collection and digitization of scripts and have been promoted through targeted language acquisition efforts. Another possibility would be to build conversational agents that can master these languages. This would provide an artificial, active conversational partner which has knowledge of the vocabulary and grammar, and one learns with it in a different way. The chatbot @ve, with which one can communicate in Latin, was developed in 2022/2023 based on GPT-3.0. It was additionally equipped with a manually created knowledge base. After conceptual groundwork, this paper presents the preparation and implementation of the project. In addition, it summarizes the test that a Latin expert conducted with the chatbot. A critical discussion elaborates advantages and disadvantages. @ve could be a new tool for teaching Latin in a memorable and entertaining way through dialogue. However, the present implementation is still too prone to glitches for stand-alone use - i.e., without the accompaniment of a teacher. The use of GPT-4 could be a solution as well as the extension of the knowledge base. In conclusion, it can be argued that conversational agents are an innovative approach to promoting and preserving languages., Comment: 15 pages

Against the backdrop of structural changes in the retail trade, social robots have found their way into retail stores and shopping malls in order to attract, welcome, and greet customers; to inform them, advise them, and persuade them to make a purchase. Salespeople often have a broad knowledge of their product and rely on offering competent and honest advice, whether it be on shoes, clothing, or kitchen appliances. However, some frequently use sales tricks to secure purchases. The question arises of how consulting and sales robots should "behave". Should they behave like human advisors and salespeople, i.e., occasionally manipulate customers? Or should they be more honest and reliable than us? This article tries to answer these questions. After explaining the basics, it evaluates a study in this context and gives recommendations for companies that want to use consulting and sales robots. Ultimately, fair, honest, and trustworthy robots in retail are a win-win situation for all concerned., Comment: Accepted paper of the AAAI 2022 Spring Symposium "How Fair is Fair? Achieving Wellbeing AI" (Stanford University)

In some situations, no professional human contact can be available. Accordingly, one remains alone with one's problems and fears. A manned Mars flight is certainly such a situation. A voice assistant that shows empathy and assists the astronauts could be a solution. In the SPACE THEA project, a prototype with such capabilities was developed using Google Assistant and Dialogflow Essentials. The voice assistant has a personality based on characteristics such as functional intelligence, sincerity, creativity, and emotional intelligence. It proves itself in seven different scenarios designed to represent the daily lives of astronauts, addressing operational crises and human problems. The paper describes the seven scenarios in detail, and lists technical and conceptual foundations of the voice assistant. Finally, the most important results are stated and the chapters are summarized., Comment: Accepted paper of the AAAI 2022 Spring Symposium "How Fair is Fair? Achieving Wellbeing AI" (Stanford University)

Zusammenfassung: Der vorliegende Beitrag arbeitet die wesentlichen Merkmale der Industrie 4.0 heraus und setzt sie ins Verhältnis zur Ethik. Es interessieren vor allem Bereichsethiken wie Informations-, Technik- und Wirtschaftsethik. Am Rande wird auf die Maschinenethik eingegangen, im Zusammenhang mit der sozialen Robotik. Es zeigt sich, dass die Industrie 4.0 neben ihren Chancen, die u.a. ökonomische und technische Aspekte betreffen, auch Risiken beinhaltet, denen rechtzeitig in Wort und Tat begegnet werden muss.

Zusammenfassung: Der vorliegende Beitrag erklärt den Begriff der MOOCs, arbeitet deren Merkmale heraus und liefert einen Überblick über Angebote, Geschäftsmodelle und Leistungsnachweise. Untersucht wird, inwieweit die Wirtschaftsinformatik von der Bewegung betroffen ist und ob Interessierte und Studierende sich auf diese Weise auf Hochschulniveau aus- und weiterbilden können. Es besteht, wie sich herauskristallisiert, ein schmales, aber nützliches Angebot, als mögliche Ergänzung zum bisherigen Unterricht.

Residents in retirement and nursing homes have sexual needs just like other people. However, the semi-public situation makes it difficult for them to satisfy these existential concerns. In addition, they may not be able to meet a suitable partner or find it difficult to have a relationship for mental or physical reasons. People who live or are cared for at home can also be affected by this problem. Perhaps they can host someone more easily and discreetly than the residents of a health facility, but some elderly and disabled people may be restricted in some ways. This article examines the opportunities and risks that arise with regard to care robots with sexual assistance functions. First of all, it deals with sexual well-being. Then it presents robotic systems ranging from sex robots to care robots. Finally, the focus is on care robots, with the author exploring technical and design issues. A brief ethical discussion completes the article. The result is that care robots with sexual assistance functions could be an enrichment of the everyday life of people in need of care, but that we also have to consider some technical, design and moral aspects., Comment: Accepted paper of the AAAI 2020 Spring Symposium "Applied AI in Healthcare: Safety, Community, and the Environment" (Stanford University). Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the physical meeting has been postponed

Cooperation and collaboration robots, co-robots or cobots for short, are an integral part of factories. For example, they work closely with the fitters in the automotive sector, and everyone does what they do best. However, the novel robots are not only relevant in production and logistics, but also in the service sector, especially where proximity between them and the users is desired or unavoidable. For decades, individual solutions of a very different kind have been developed in care. Now experts are increasingly relying on co-robots and teaching them the special tasks that are involved in care or therapy. This article presents the advantages, but also the disadvantages of co-robots in care and support, and provides information with regard to human-robot interaction and communication. The article is based on a model that has already been tested in various nursing and retirement homes, namely Lio from F&P Robotics, and uses results from accompanying studies. The authors can show that co-robots are ideal for care and support in many ways. Of course, it is also important to consider a few points in order to guarantee functionality and acceptance., Comment: Accepted paper of the AAAI 2020 Spring Symposium "Applied AI in Healthcare: Safety, Community, and the Environment" (Stanford University). Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the physical meeting has been postponed

Advanced driver assistance systems are widely used. Some support and inform the driver. Others relieve him or her of certain tasks—and transform the human-guided system into a semi-autonomous one. For some years also fully autonomous systems have been on the roads, so-called self-driving cars, as prototypes of companies and within research projects. From the perspective of ethics—both of the special fields of ethics like animal ethics, information ethics and technology ethics and of machine ethics which can be understood as a counterpart to human ethics—advanced driver assistance systems raise various questions. The aim of this paper is to derive suggestions from animal ethics and other disciplines for the improvement and development of the systems. The basis are literature analysis and own classifications and considerations. The result is that there are many possibilities to expand existing systems and to develop new functions in the context with the aim to reduce the number of animal victims.

Zusammenfassung: Die Informationsethik hat die Moral (in) der Informationsgesellschaft zum Gegenstand. Sie untersucht, wie wir uns, Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (IKT) und neue Medien anbietend und nutzend, in moralischer Hinsicht verhalten bzw. verhalten sollen. In den letzten Jahren ist sie in die Mitte der Bereichsethiken gerückt. Diese hängen mehr und mehr von der Informationsethik ab. Der vorliegende Artikel untersucht das Verhältnis zwischen der Informationsethik und den anderen Bereichsethiken am Beispiel der Medizinethik

Der Artikel »Angriff von unten« von Johanna Mauermann und Oliver Bendel befasst sich mit den tiefgreifenden Veränderungen auf dem Literaturmarkt durch die voranschreitende Verbreitung von elektronischer Literatur. Er zeigt auf, dass die Impulse vor allem »von unten« kommen, vorbei am traditionellen Literaturbetrieb. Dieser befasst sich erst allmählich mit den neuen Formaten, Plattformen und Vertriebswegen. Die Autoren erstellen das Portfolio der elektronischen Literatur zweier Länder, Japans und Deutschlands (und am Rande der deutschsprachigen Schweiz). Japan deshalb, weil elektronische Literatur dort inzwischen einen hohen Stellenwert hat, auch für den Buchmarkt. Deutschland und Schweiz, weil sich hier ähnliche Strukturen entwickelt haben, deren Erforschung in den Händen der hiesigen Wissenschaftler und des Literaturbetriebs liegt. Die Autoren gelangen zu dem Schluss, dass im »Schreiben 2.0« insgesamt viel Potenzial steckt. Es gilt daher, die aktuellen Entwicklungen zu erfassen, zu bewerten und zum gegenseitigen Austausch aufzufordern.

Zusammenfassung: Der vorliegende Beitrag erklärt den Begriff der MOOCs, arbeitet deren Merkmale heraus und liefert einen Überblick über Angebote, Geschäftsmodelle und Leistungsnachweise. Untersucht wird, inwieweit die Wirtschaftsinformatik von der Bewegung betroffen ist und ob Interessierte und Studierende sich auf diese Weise auf Hochschulniveau aus- und weiterbilden können. Es besteht, wie sich herauskristallisiert, ein schmales, aber nützliches Angebot, als mögliche Ergänzung zum bisherigen Unterricht.

Zusammenfassung: Der vorliegende Beitrag arbeitet die wesentlichen Merkmale der Industrie 4.0 heraus und setzt sie ins Verhältnis zur Ethik. Es interessieren vor allem Bereichsethiken wie Informations-, Technik- und Wirtschaftsethik. Am Rande wird auf die Maschinenethik eingegangen, im Zusammenhang mit der sozialen Robotik. Es zeigt sich, dass die Industrie 4.0 neben ihren Chancen, die u.a. ökonomische und technische Aspekte betreffen, auch Risiken beinhaltet, denen rechtzeitig in Wort und Tat begegnet werden muss.

Advanced driver assistance systems are widely used. Some support and inform the driver. Others relieve him or her of certain tasks—and transform the human-guided system into a semi-autonomous one. For some years also fully autonomous systems have been on the roads, so-called self-driving cars, as prototypes of companies and within research projects. From the perspective of ethics—both of the special fields of ethics like animal ethics, information ethics and technology ethics and of machine ethics which can be understood as a counterpart to human ethics—advanced driver assistance systems raise various questions. The aim of this paper is to derive suggestions from animal ethics and other disciplines for the improvement and development of the systems. The basis are literature analysis and own classifications and considerations. The result is that there are many possibilities to expand existing systems and to develop new functions in the context with the aim to reduce the number of animal victims.

Zusammenfassung: Die Informationsethik hat die Moral (in) der Informationsgesellschaft zum Gegenstand. Sie untersucht, wie wir uns, Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (IKT) und neue Medien anbietend und nutzend, in moralischer Hinsicht verhalten bzw. verhalten sollen. In den letzten Jahren ist sie in die Mitte der Bereichsethiken gerückt. Diese hängen mehr und mehr von der Informationsethik ab. Der vorliegende Artikel untersucht das Verhältnis zwischen der Informationsethik und den anderen Bereichsethiken am Beispiel der Medizinethik