Can a Robot Lie?
The Robot of the Mountains
The Mountain Summit
That snowstorm seemed eternal. Edward was trapped for at least one day in his tent, isolated from the world, waiting for the right time to make his last attempt to reach the summit of Mount Movasi. The weather forecasts were not good. After that storm, Edward might have had another day to try a final ascent. Then the terrible Movasi winter would have won and would have forced him to retire. Edward had all the time to recall the local legends, where the Movasi winter was personified into a dreadful demon, taking the lives of any mountaineer who had dared to reach the peak during the wintertime. Maybe in a few hours the wind would have given a final push to the walls of the Edward’s tent and the name of that brave mountain climber would have been added to the long list of mountaineers who had tried to climb Mount Movasi.
The only companion in those long and ice-cold hours was HMA8848, friendly called iSherpa. iSherpa was the most recent invention of a team of robotics scientists and experts of alpinism. In the intention of its inventors, iSherpa could have substitute human Sherpa assistants. The work of carrying the equipment of mountaineers was heavy and humble. The mountaineer usually gets the glory of achieving the final success of the climbing expedition, while the humble Sherpa is often and unjustly treated as a background character in that story of glory. A robot like iSherpa would never have complained about excessive loads and the full glory would have assigned to the human climber, without disappointing any human Sherpa. The expedition by Edward was the first robot-assisted ascent. That exploration could open a new era for mountaineers.
Edward and iSherpa had spent three intense weeks together climbing the North face of Mount Movasi. They had climbed steep rock buttresses and glaciers on the most dangerous route of Mount Movasi. iSherpa was similar to a mule, but it had a large platform that could carry more hundreds of kilos of equipment. It was totally autonomous. The scientist had equipped iSherpa with a set of powerful computers that enable it to manage all the tricks and dangers of a mountain ascent. However, any decision regarding the climbing and the expedition should be taken by the mountaineer, as iSherpa did not have that intuitive form of human expertise that mountaineering still requires. The artificial intelligence of iSherpa was also a nice companionship for the moments of constrained immobility like that snowstorm.
The Three Laws of Robotics
“Do you now the first law of robotics?” Edward asked to iSherpa, in a moment of relative silence of the wind.
“Do you mean the laws of robotics by Isaac Asimov?” The voice of iSherpa was similar to a human voice, just a little less expressive.
“Yes.”
“The first law of robotics claim that «A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm»” iSherpa declaimed the law with a sure tone.
“Right. Thus, according to the first law, you would never lie to me if the lie would cause any harm to me. Is that right?”
“Yes” iSherpa answered with an unassuming tone.
“And what is the second law of robotics?” asked Edward.
“The second law of robotics claim that «A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law»”
“Ok” continued Edward. “Thus according to the second law, if I order to you something, you have to follow my order (unless it violates the first law). I order to you — iSherpa — to tell me the truth.” The tension in the voice of Edward now was high: “By reviewing your weather forecasts and the data that you gathered along the route, tell me the truth: will I survive this storm?”
The LED lights of the iSherpa’s central board flashed frantically while its artificial intelligence searched for the answer to the Edward’s question.
“No, you will not survive”
The answer by iSherpa came like a thunderstorm, adding its power to the blizzard outside. The silence of Edward was long and his eyes look steadily at the lights of iSherpa, which now glimmered a calm pace.
Edward tried to think straight: «I ordered iSherpa to tell me the truth, so its answer about my fate must be the truth, according to the second law which obliges it to follow my orders. Therefore, I will not survive. However, if that truth would violate the first law, iSherpa would be obliged to give me a fake information. In that case, I will survive…»
iSherpa was in standby. A placid state while the storm around was roaring like a giant lion. That robot was worth some million dollars, but the only outcome of its precise sentence («No, you will not survive») was a mixture of despair and hope.
Can a robot lie?
Edward spent an indefinite time in that state, moving from the certainty of dying for an avalanche caused by the storm and sudden moments of slight optimism, when the wind seemed to relax its constant energy. «Maybe I will survive according to iSherpa, but iSherpa is thinking that the answer “You will survive” would cause me harm because I would then calm down and I will not do some action, like get out this tent to try to reach some safer point.» This reasoning popped up on his mind like a lightning. With a sudden move, Edward exited the tent. In a moment of rest of the storm, he noticed a natural refuge formed by two rock. He reached that spot just in time to save himself: a strong gust of wind tore the tent away.
Rescuing the Truth
The rescue team found Edward, almost frozen but alive. iSherpa was one hundred meters away, dented but working.
The team, Edward and iSherpa reached the warm and safe hut at the base camp. After the medical interventions and a nice hot tea, Edward asked iSherpa: “I eventually survived. Why did you told me that I would have not survived?”
“I told a lie”
The iSherpa’s reply astonished the scientists.
“That’s the classical Liar paradox” said a software analysis, observing iSherpa like an alien. “If «I told a lie» is true, then the sentence is false; if «I told a lie» is false, then the sentence is true”.
The iSherpa uttered a strange sound and then it turned off. No member of the scientific team was able to turn iSherpa on anymore. For some reasons, iSherpa decided to end its operations forever.
“«A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law»: that is the third law of robotics.” A thoughtful Edward said, explaining the situation to those worried scientists at the base camp. “After the mission on Mont Movasi, iSherpa understood that by continuing its operations it would harm the life of the mountaineers, thus it turned off.”
“But iSherpa is designed to help mountaineers, not to harm them…” the chief scientist said.
“And it does help. But in some critical moments during an ascent, a mountaineer may need answers that a robot cannot provide. The iSherpa’s answer to my question regarding my survival was intentionally false; in fact I survived. Thus iSherpa, in order to save me, disobeyed my order of telling the truth. And now — with its « I told a lie» − it is telling us that its behavior can creates paradoxical moments like that I lived near the mountain summit, when I asked the question.”
“And why iSherpa now turned off?”
“iSherpa followed the Isaac Asimov’s third law of robotics: it did not protect itself because that would have violated the first two laws, thus it turned off forever. By continuing to operate normally, it would be employed on the next expedition, putting another mountaineer in the same conditions of uncertainty. iSherpa knows that sometimes a climber needs to make quick decisions with confidence, and not thinking whether a sentence is truth or false.”
“iSherpa was enough intelligent to understand that it cannot reach the intelligence of a real human Sherpa” Edward added, with the dismay of the robotics scientist around him.
Mount Movasi was wonderful when the firs rays of the Sun reached its summit after the storm.
Photo and image credits:
- Cover: Adarsh Thakuri/MinutesAlone;(CC BY 2.0)
- Robot: © Boston Dynamics
