Robots for Care: A Few Considerations from the Social Sciences
Authors: Domènech Miquel , Vallès-Peris Núria 
Published: May 2024

According to the scientific and technical literature, there is a continuous and significant increase of the importance of robots in the economy and society. Most of those robots are produced to cover industry needs, thinking of the robot as a substitute for human beings. They are supposed to improve the quality of work by taking over dangerous, tedious and dirty jobs that are not possible or safe for humans to perform. Thus, most of the envisaged scenarios do not foresee the need to take into consideration how to manage the social interaction between human and robot; once the robot is placed, the human being disappears from the scene. Nevertheless, the idea that robots can cover other human needs than those related to industry has also gained ground and new concerns and debates are taking place. Robots appear in environments that would have seemed unexpected not long ago, assuming duties traditionally assigned to humans. In this vein, we are witnessing an increasing expectation of advances in robotics and artificial intelligence. The possibility of involving robots in caring tasks seems closer than ever. There are pilot experiences with robots and older people, robots working in therapy for children with autism or robots in hospitals enrolled in a variety of tasks. In view of such a scenario, social scientists have been questioned regarding a wide range of uncertainties and fears. Can robots substitute for human beings in any kind of situation? Is robot care colder than human care? Can robots improve carers’ work? Are robots more effective than humans in certain tasks? Frequently, these are rhetorical questions. People reach their own conclusions, but they need to ascertain their idea about a possible future filled with robots – an idea that is summarized in terms of good or bad. The temptation to end up with a simple question is always there: are robots good or bad? Our position is that social scientists should try to avoid the discussion in such terms. At least in science and technology studies, we prefer to maintain that technological artefacts are neither good nor bad. However, and this second point is very important, they are not neutral either. This means that they give rise to particular effects. They transform relationships, they affect people’s identities or they change meanings, among many other possibilities. Thus, a question concerning the consequences of the introduction of a technological advance is always appropriate. A society with robots is not going to be the same than a society without them. There is, then, a certain kind of society proposed in every robot offered for a particular end. If we assume this last idea, then a very interesting space for collaboration between social scientists, roboticists and engineers opens in front of us, a space that should allow us to go beyond the kind of demand usually addressed to social scientists by engineers: ‘how can you make people accept it?’ Following this line of thought, we offer here some basic reflections concerning the development of robots for care, organized around four basic topics: the relationship between technology and society; the social impact of innovations; the ethical concerns of technological development; and the importance of the design process.