The European Parliament’s legal affairs committee today voted on the first ever report on robots.
 
S&D MEP and author of the report Mady Delvaux-Stehres said:
 
“The idea of millions of intelligent robots still sounds to most of us like something from a dystopian science fiction novel. As computer processing speeds continue to increase at an ever-faster rate, this will quickly become the reality. Robots will become part of our daily life.  This is going to have as profound an effect on our societies as the industrial revolution. We need to think urgently about the legal, ethical and societal ramifications of this new robotic revolution. It is important that we as politicians make sure that robots will at all times serve humans. This report is the start of that process.
 
“As social democrats, it is urgent that we look at new models to manage society in a world where robots do more and more of the work. One idea adopted in this report is to look at a universal basic income – where everyone would receive a wage from the government whether they are in work or not. This revolution can bring huge benefits to our societies – new jobs in research and innovation, robots performing dangerous tasks currently done by humans, lower risk of car accidents by excluding human error and smarter energy consumption. However, we need to make sure these benefits outweigh the challenges. In particular, we on the left need to ensure that the robotic revolution does not mean greater unemployment and an even greater gap between rich and poor in our societies.”