In a recent article I explored how people respond when a robot they’re working alongside makes a mistake.  Research from the US Army found that transparency was key, especially in terms of understanding the thought process that led the machine to make the error.

“Understanding how the robot’s behavior influences their human teammates is crucial to the development of effective human-robot teams, as well as the design of interfaces and communication methods between team members,” the researchers explain.

This also emerged from a second study, from North Carolina State University, which explored how people respond to workplace accidents that involve robots in some way.  It found that people are more inclined to blame robots for such accidents when they believe they’re operating autonomously.

“Robots are an increasingly common feature in the workplace, and it’s important for us to understand how people view robots in that context – including how people view robots when accidents occur at work,” the researchers say.

Taking the blame

The researchers recruited a few hundred volunteers and showed them a range of workplace accidents involving combinations of humans and robots.

When they were told that the robot had been operated by humans, then the human operator tended to get the blame.  When the robot was autonomous however, with a human merely providing a monitoring function, then the robot was the one typically singled out.

“The finding is somewhat intuitive, but it addresses a fundamental issue: when do we transfer responsibility for an error from a human to a robot?” the researchers say.  “The study also raises questions about how quickly autonomous robots may be assimilated into the workplace. Do employers want to buy robots that may be more efficient, but can be blamed for errors – making it more difficult to hold human employees accountable? Or do employers want to stick to robots that are viewed solely as tools to be controlled by humans?”