Jul 23. () –
Researchers call for regulation to guide responsible and ethical development of biohybrid roboticsa groundbreaking science that fuses artificial components with living tissues and cells. In an article published in ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’, a multidisciplinary team from the University of Southampton (United Kingdom), in collaboration with universities in the United States and Spain, exposes the unique ethical problems presented by this technology and the need for appropriate governance.
Combining living materials and organisms with synthetic robotic components may seem like an idea from science fiction, but this emerging field is advancing rapidly. Biohybrid robots using living muscles can crawl, swim, grasp, pump, and sense their environment. Sensors made from insect sensory cells or antennae have improved chemical sensing. Living neurons have even been used to control mobile robots.
Dr Rafael Mestre from the University of Southampton, who specialises in emerging technologies and is co-lead author on the paper, explains: “The challenges posed by oversight of biohybrid robotics are not dissimilar to those faced in regulating biomedical devices, stem cells and other disruptive technologies. But unlike purely mechanical or digital technologies, biohybrid robots combine biological and synthetic components in unprecedented ways. This presents unique potential benefits, but also potential pitfalls.”
Research publications related to biohybrid robotics have steadily increased over the past decade. But the authors found that of the more than 1,500 publications on the topic at the time, only five looked in depth at its ethical implications.
The authors of the paper identified three areas in which biohybrid robotics presents unique ethical issues: interactivity (how biorobots interact with humans and the environment), integrability (how and whether humans could assimilate biorobots (such as biorobotic organs or limbs), and moral status.
In a series of thought experiments, they describe how a biorobot to clean our oceans could disrupt the food chain, how a biohybrid robotic arm could exacerbate inequalities, and how increasingly sophisticated biohybrid assistants could raise questions about sentience and moral worth.
“Biohybrid robots pose unique ethical dilemmas,” said Aníbal M. Astobiza, an ethicist at the University of the Basque Country in Spain and co-lead author of the paper. “The living tissue used in their manufacture, their potential for sentience, their particular environmental impact, their unusual moral status, and their capacity for biological evolution or adaptation pose unique ethical dilemmas that go beyond those posed by wholly artificial or biological technologies.”
This paper is the first in the Biohybrid Futures project, led by Dr Rafael Mestre, in collaboration with the Rebooting Democracy project. Biohybrid Futures aims to develop a framework for responsible research, application and governance of biohybrid robotics. The paper proposes several requirements for such a framework, including risk assessments, consideration of societal implications, and increased public awareness and understanding.
In this regard, Matt Ryan, a political scientist at the University of Southampton and co-author of the article, explains: “If the debates around embryonic stem cells, human cloning or artificial intelligence have taught us anything, it is that humans rarely agree on the correct resolution of the moral dilemmas of emerging technologies.
“Compared to related technologies such as embryonic stem cells or artificial intelligence, biohybrid robotics has developed largely unnoticed by the media, the public and policymakers, but it is no less important for that. We want the public to be involved in this conversation to ensure a democratic approach to the development and ethical assessment of this technology.”
In addition to the need for a governance framework, the authors set out actions that the research community can take now to guide their research. “These steps should not be seen as prescriptive in any way, but rather as an opportunity to share responsibility, taking a huge weight off the shoulders of researchers,” adds Dr Victoria Webster-Wood, a biomechanical engineer at Carnegie Mellon University in the US and co-author of the paper. “Biohybrid robotics research has evolved in different directions. We need to align our efforts to fully exploit its potential,” she concludes.
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