Robot Abuse?          The field of robotics is booming and scientists are developing ever more complex types ofrobots. But as machines evolve from being mere devices to possessing artificial intelligence, somescientists are calling for laws to help prevent possible human abuse of robots, as well as potentialrobot abuse of humans. In fact, the government of South Korea considered this issue so vital that itstarted drawing up a code of ethics to prevent both types of abuse. South Korea's Ministry ofCommerce, Industry and Energy announced that this Robot Ethics Charter would cover standardsfor robotics users and manufacturers, as well as suggestions for ethical standards to be programmedinto robots. "The move anticipates the day when robots, particularly intelligent service robots, couldbecome a part of daily life as greater technological advancements are made," the ministry said in astatement.         A group of futurists (people who predict future events and conditions) and a science-fictionwriter were chosen to work on the charter. They count among their colleagues Gianmarco Veruggioof the School of Robotics in Genoa, Italy, who is recognized as a leading authority on roboethics, orthe moral treatment of robots. "Robotics is a new science with manifold applications that can assisthumans and solve many, many problems," he said. "However, as in every field of science andtechnology, sensitive areas open up, and it is the specific responsibility of the scientists who work inthis field to face this new array of social and ethical problems."        South Korea possesses one of the world's most high-tech societies. The country's Ministry ofInformation and Communication is working on plans to put a robot in every South Korean home by2020. The new charter aims to gradually establish some basic rules for human interaction withrobots in the future. The main focus of the charter appears to be dealing with social problems theyforesee, such as human control over robots and humans who might prefer interacting with robotsthan with humans.        The forthcoming document will also provide insight into legal issues, such as the protection ofdata acquired by robots and establishing clear identification and traceability of the machines.Veruggio talks about how technological advances have introduced new models of human-machinerelationships that may bring different ethical challenges. "Think of...military applications ofrobotics, of robots in children's rooms," he said.        The South Korean charter is not entirely different from science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov'sthree laws of robotics. The laws, familiar to many science-fiction readers, were first put forward byAsimov in his 1942 short story "Runaround": robots may not injure humans or, through inaction,allow humans to come to harm； robots must obey human orders unless they conflict with the firstlaw； robots must protect themselves if this does not conflict with the other laws. On the surface, thelaws seem to make sense. Nonetheless, robot researchers say that Asimov's laws---and the SouthKorean charter---belong to the area of science-fiction and are not yet applicable to their field.        "While I applaud the Korean effort to establish a robot ethics charter, I fear it might bepremature to use Asimov's laws as a starter," said Mark Tilden, the designer of RoboSapien, a robottoy. Current robot intelligence is only a fraction of what they are in Asimov's stories, so assumingtoday's robots have morals remains a fantasy. Hiroshi Ishiguru of Osaka University, who helpedcreate a female android, a human-like robot, agrees: "If we have a more intelligent vehicle, whotakes the responsibility when it has an accident? We can ask the same question of a robot. Robots donot have human-level intelligence. It is rather similar to a vehicle today." Perhaps scientists should  focus on finding a way to reproduce human intelligence and bridge the technology gap first, beforeconsidering the issue of robot ethics.
【題組】46. The purpose of the reading is to ____.
(A) describe a plan to write laws about how humans and robots should interact
(B) explain some of the problems of human-robot interaction that have occurred
(C) show why the South Korean government wants to put a robot in every home
(D) give the reader background information about how robots work