Executive summary 7 Changing risks − Unscrupulous manufacturers might insert − The risk profile of employers’ liability and public unethical behaviours into the robots’ code. liability could change as liability could be pushed − Robots that have user-adjustable ethics settings back onto the robot product (e.g. choice between maximising length of life or manufacturer/designer. quality of life) may have their settings somehow − There is the potential for large-scale insurance set outside an “ethical envelope”. losses resulting from business interruption in − There is likely to be an ongoing struggle around supply chains that use cobots that could need the ownership of data between the intelligence replacing and redesign due to a cyber failure or functions, the cobot manufacturer, the internet of faults. things (IoT) provider, the product manufacturer − Cobots weighing less than 100kg are more and, in some cases, the consumer. Whilst cobots vulnerable to natural catastrophe events, which in an industrial environment collect large creates the potential for risk aggregation and amounts of factory and supply chain data, those therefore higher losses (e.g. 20 agricultural interacting with humans in the home or in a retail robots are more vulnerable to windstorm damage environment gather highly-sensitive personal compared to a 20-tonne tractor). data. Security breaches in these domains could lead to large losses and slow cobot adoption. The ensuing property damage and business interruption losses covered could be large. Artificial intelligence and robotics − Cobots require vast data storage facilities which could be vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a core technology in the future − Robot use in the healthcare sector can development of robotics. Indeed, all interviewees in the complicate liability. Medical clinicians using report said that the future of robotics is dependent on the robots without the necessary training, or future of AI. Developments in AI and their potential incorrectly operating may amount to medical impacts on the insurance industry are discussed in malpractice; a robot may be defective and further detail in Lloyd’s report Taking control: artificial covered under product liability policies. The intelligence and insurance. difficulty lies when robots are not fully Much of research in AI, such as deep learning for vision, autonomous and there is not a consensus speech recognition in interface design and the transition whether the clinician is negligent, the robot is from supervised to unsupervised learning, are central to defective or both. the future application of cobots. Challenges around New risks designing an interface to minimise safety concerns where speech may be misheard or misunderstood and could − Faulty cobots have the potential to cause lead to potentially life-threatening situations. A second damage to property (e.g. a moving robot might problem is making the interface engaging and entertaining so that people will continue to interact with drive into a supplier’s vehicle) and to other the device. Future developments in robotics are closely workers or people around as they start working in linked to those in AI. increasingly autonomous ways. − In healthcare and homecare, there are risks Conversational AI has immediate application where associated with working directly on people. robots are already fulfilling informational rather than Interviewee #7 (see page 24) notes that safety physical needs. For example, in healthcare there is tests with cobots tend to be done with adult male research into and development of text and speech subjects, which indicates that they may not conversational bots for mental health therapy and for necessarily be safe for environments with more health information provision. There is also research on vulnerable persons such as older people or physical robots in hospitals and care homes which can children. guide patients to locations or encourage them to do − Interviewee #2 points to a future for agriculture rehabilitation exercises. The use of cobots for healthcare where farms and fields will be worked by robots in the home puts the emphasis on their interaction with and drones together with tractors, but with high humans so developments in technologies such as levels of artificial intelligence. This scenario conversational AI will be central to their adoption. introduces new risks, e.g. the consequential Questions around new intellectual property (IP) losses to crops from hacking or design faults, ownership will arise from AI-enabled cobots in and increased losses from theft of valuable unsupervised learning within a factory or home. technology. Taking control: robots and risk