Lumen Spring Summer 2023 - Flipbook - Page 37
Susan Hazel plays with Kadli, AIML’s robot dog
Peoples’ lives are saved when their phone
alerts them to a change in heart rate. What
if we were alerted if something was going
wrong with our dog? My old Labrador
Fergus died acutely when he haemorrhaged
due to lung tumours we didn’t know were
there. I’m in two minds whether I would
have wanted to know beforehand, when
there was nothing we could do.
What if we could program robots to help
our pets live a happier life? One of the
problems that increased post-COVID was
separation anxiety in dogs, especially with
COVID puppies when we returned to work.
Separation anxiety is not trivial for dogs,
they suffer extreme distress and can destroy
back doors and sofas. AI has already been
used to help with early diagnosis using
wearable sensors.
Dogs will also be affected indirectly by
how AI changes future work. If it enables
a standard four-day week I know our dogs
would love that as much as we would.
We know there is a dark side of pet
ownership; in domestic violence situations
women don’t leave their abusive partners if
they are unable to take their pets with them.
Since shelters don’t often take pets, this can
mean they stay rather than leave as they
don’t want their pet to be left behind. What
if AI was used to monitor our pets, with an
automatic reporting system if the pet was
being abused? But who would go to
save them?
I’ve focused on dogs, but of course there
will be changes for other pets. A robot
could be a play companion for cats, shining
lights, or ringing bells, or moving wand toys
programmed to react as a person would.
Could AI tell you which pet you should
or could have in the future? No, you are
too neurotic to be a cat owner, but a ferret
would suit your personality and your
lifestyle perfectly. You are too houseproud
for a Labrador and their hair-shedding,
but a poodle would be perfect. Or would
housework also be a thing of the past?
We can always dream.
Yet the problem with AI is that sometimes
it tries to make predictable the parts of our
lives that cannot be predicted. And I think
the unpredictable parts are what make life
worth living. Life is not about being happy
all of the time. No yin without yang, no
loving a pet without bearing some cost.
The genius of the robotic dog AIBO was
that it was programmed to be unpredictable.
The programmers set what the robots
emotional state was likely to be based on
ethological principles, and if AIBOs were
happy they were more likely to wag their
tail when you patted them, and less likely
to growl or move away. But not 100 per
cent. Sometimes their behaviour could not
be predicted. Not as unpredictable as a
real dog, but real enough that people have
mourned the loss of their AIBO as though it
was a real dog.
AI will certainly pose new ethical challenges
as it changes our lives. AI pioneer
Dr Geoffrey Hinton has left Google and
openly written about its future dangers.
There will also be benefits – let’s make sure
to extend these to the non-human animals
we share our lives with.
Susan Hazel is Associate Professor at the
School of Animal and Veterinary Science,
Roseworthy campus.
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