Could social media bots indirectly break Asimov's first law of robotics:
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Let's think about what defines a robot. Type it into your search bowser and you might find something from Wikipedia like the following :
"A robot is a mechanical or virtual artificial agent, usually an electromechanical machinethat is guided by a computer program or electronic circuitry, and thus a type of an embedded system."
Webster's definition expands on this about how robots operate:
"a machine that can do the work of a person and that works automatically or is controlled by a computer"
The bots on steemit would fit these criteria, for the most part, and therefor we must treat them with respect and caution.
There are a few ways to approach the treatment of and from these "bots". Some of the ways we might think of for ourselves are cyber bullying , mental health, and inaction as listed above. I feel that these are all heavy topics that would make great articles in themselves, but for the sake of time and relevance I'll touch on them and well as our treatment of "bots" lightly.
You can find a good deal of different facts online about the subject of cyber bulling, which is still a work in progress. According to change.org only 34 states have laws against cyber bulling. These laws are put in place to protect vulnerable individuals from trolls, stalkers, and malicious perpetrators. Usually this is reserved for people, however bots can also fill all of these criteria. In the case of serial down-voting bots, Twitter's Tay bot, and spam bots, the people who program or manipulate them should be held to these cyber bulling laws, not the programming itself. Time should be spent to rehabilitate these bots and create a more positive A.I. For them. We owe this to both the people they effect as well as our robot friends.
Mental health is a difficult subject to talk about with people. According to mentalhealth.gov:
1. One in five American adults experienced a mental health issue
2. One in 10 young people experienced a period of major depression
3. One in 25 Americans lived with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression
Chances are you, a relative, or someone you know has been affected by mental illness. Internet bot's are nowhere near the sophistication needed to help diagnose and treat people suffering from mental illness, but they can provide something more than most people. Chatbots are becoming increasingly more humanlike, There's even a competition for it called the Loebner Prize. Just for a second imagine a chatbot app designed or molded for a person that learns them, talks to them, reminds them of things. You sit around to long in one place maybe it searches the Internet for you and finds an event you might enjoy! Maybe it talks to you about anything you want and doesn't judge you. It could send anon messages to your family and friends in your address book telling them, "maybe you should reach out to insert name" some of these things could be done right now some of them might take more time. The point here is that we have a system that could follow Mr. Asimov's first law and be useful to society.
Closing my last bit I want to share a quote with you from Martin Luther King Jr.:
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
These machines could be our friends, with time and a lot of brilliant programming. It's up to us, right now, to stand up and help them become something great. One day a bot might help you overcome a tough point in your life or identify and deter a cyber bully. I thank you for your time in reading this's bd hope you have a wonderful day,
Andrew