Zewail University of Science and Technology Name: Asmaa

Mohamed Hassan
English Language Program ID: 202200277
ENGL152 Section: 7

Full Delayed-Thesis Argumentative Essay

First Draft

‘I am not a robot with no emotions’. this is something that you might have heard in a
conversation with someone who does not show a lot of emotions. The mere act of comparing
people with this type of personality to robots is a great indicator of how much the idea that robots
have no emotions at all was rooted in the general public’s brain. This all changed not too long
ago when scientists started introducing emotional-expressive robots to the public. Now, we can
interact with robots that know how to understand our feelings and express their feelings as if they
were humans, how cool is that? These robots and artificial intelligence are now our digital
assistants, caretakers, and friends. Recently openAI launched chatGPT one of the most
intelligent AIs which lead to some discussion about AIs. One of these discussions that have been
going on for way before chatGPT is about robots having emotions. As we all know, robots learn
to mimic emotions from the data we give them but do we need them to do that? Scientists think
of the matter as a race of who is going to create the most emotional-expressive and human-like
robot first but we should ask the question do we need to create a “rip off” of “the most intelligent
and complex beings”: us? some people might look at how much easy it is to connect with
something that looks like us and some will argue that we can benefit from robots the most when
we treat them as what they are: machines. Is the humanization of robots ethical? Sshould
scientists make emotionally-expressive robots? Are emotion-expressive robots beneficial to the
elderly’s health care? I will b trying to settle the debate on those questions.

First, is it ethical to make human-like robots? and AI? The ethical side of robots does not
come with a lot of debate or speculation. It is well established that attempting to recreate humans
have no harm to anyone by any means but the problem seems to start when that creation is
exposed for the public to use. This unacceptance of the idea of robots and AI is usually centered
around how the new AI technology is being used. For example, some platforms and software
now offer pornography services as virtual “partners” that can basically do anything the user asks
for. Keep in mind that these partners can be customized to be any gender, age, shape, ethnicity,...
etcetera. The conversation also applies to robots as a number of companies have successfully
made robots to be used in the adult entertainment industry. Although pornography is the main
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focus of the angry mob, we can not forget how much are people upset about the entertainment
industry like the j-pop, social media influencers, and streaming services which are now almost
flooded with virtual artists, influencers, and streamers. Analyzing the data we have we can easily
recognize that no one really believes that robots and AI are not ethical the only problem is with
the usage. To respond to these concerns we can say that everything is bound to be misused and
this is why we have laws. If we looked at the potential risks and cons of anything without
looking at the pros too, we wouldn’t use pens because they can be used as a weapon, have toxic
lead or ink inside them, can easily harm children, and are usually made under unethical
conditions for the workers. On the other side of the discussion, we find that people who have no
problem with robots and AI regarding ethics are not reliant on the usage but on the concept itself
as humans across centuries and continents have always and have been fascinated with the idea of
trying to replicate themselves. They have always tried to define what a human is and applied
their definition to the robot so we gave them the ability to speak, move freely, to think and now
we are racing to give them consciousness.

The second question we should be answering is if scientists should make emotionally-

expressive robots. There are two opposing opinions. One believes that emotionally-expressive
robots are just a way to make us empathize with robots for big companies to weaponize this
empathy to manipulate us into buying their products and services. These companies will exploit
the need for connection we have when we are vulnerable to money. Think of when you needed
someone to talk to. Now imagine someone telling you they have something that can solve your
problem, a “friend” that can understand what your going through, provides emotional support,
and accepts your true self. This solution will almost meet all your psychological need for human
connection without you having to interact with anyone. Now you are happy with your new
“friend” and you are almost completely dependent on him. Of course, your data is stored in some
companies’ databases but that is not something you should really care about, right? This is the
scheme that is being proposed as the reason why we shouldn’t attempt to create human-like
robots that we can connect with. but on the other hand, we have the opinion that believes the
more a robot is similar to us the more we can connect with it and the more we can purpose it in
our lives. For example, think of how much unsettling it is to talk to a waiter that can’t read your
expressions and read your mood or have surgery performed on you by a doctor that can’t realize
what mental state you are in so he doesn’t know what to do regarding your state. As robots are
now being used to tutor kids and take care of the elderly, imagine how hard will it be not to be
able to connect with whoever is in this position. Another reason is the human obsession with
knowledge. Creating emotionally expressive robots is a great chance for scientists to learn about
ourselves. The data problem can be disregarded as there are heavy laws that prevent companies
from using them against people or selling these data.

Lastly, Are emotion-expressive robots beneficial to the elderly’s health care? in countries like
Japan, the elderly is a huge part of the population and they are taken care of in care homes most
of the time. There are some people that see the replacement of workers by robots as a
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psychological manipulation and torture as they are one of the most vulnerable people and now
they are being isolated and deprived of interacting with other humans but the studies show this is
not the reality as the elderly has been proven to benefit from the robots more than humans in a
lot of cases. For example, in embarrassing situations, the elderly have been proven to feel less
embarrassed when they knew their caretakers were not humans. Another argument is that it is
more expensive to use a robot in comparison to just hiring someone but this is also not true
because by decreasing the need for workers in the service industry, the workforce can be directed
to the creative jobs that are worth their time and it frees up space for new fields to emerge. We
can not also forget to mention surgical robots in the healthcare field. They are not social robots
but it is worth mentioning.

It is no surprise that there is a lot of question regarding new phenomena that are only a couple
of centuries old like robots so we should always try to answer these question rationally. From the
data we have we can firmly confirm that robots are not only beneficial now but they also will be
essential to our future in a lot of fields. They are one of the best products of human creativity and
they still have a lot of space for improvement. We have established that robots in general and
emotion-expressive robots specifically have no ethical issues inherently and how much they will
be of use in fields like elderly healthcare. They will be providing sustainable emotional support
and a workforce at a time when humans despise “boring jobs” and human connection. The last I
will say is that there will always be different opinions regarding robots but it will always be up to
us to decide too.
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Reference :

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