Benefits
Intelligent robots have been a staple of science fiction for more than a century. An artificial brain that is able to understand the world and feel emotions akin to a human being may still be fiction today, but advances in the field of robotics show that it may become a reality soon. The creation of a thinking computer will require a lot of resources and are guaranteed to bring complex dilemmas and controversy into the world. However, the applications for such technology are extremely wide. Due to their ability to understand human emotions, such robots would be effective assistants for the seniors, customer service people, and guides for the blind, as well as other professions (Wu, Tsai, Hu, & Chen, 2017). It may also solve the issue of autonomous weapons being indiscriminate when protecting areas (Royakkers & Est, 2015).
Disadvantages
Some of the most prominent issues concern the security of such machines. A talented hacker would be able to gain access to the system of the robot to use it maliciously. A weapons system controlled by such a robot would instantly become a deadly hazard to anyone standing near it, and a guide robot could lead a person into traffic (Matellán, Bonaci, & Sabaliauskaite, 2018). The second issue could come from robots replacing human jobs. Unemployment would rise, and animosity towards intelligent robots would develop (Gross, 2017).
References
Gross, M. (2017). How will robots integrate into our world? Current Biology, 27(6), 199–201.
Matellán, V., Bonaci, T., & Sabaliauskaite, G. (2018). Cyber-security in robotics and autonomous systems. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 100, 41–42.
Royakkers, L., & Est, R. van. (2015). A literature review on new robotics: Automation from love to war. International Journal of Social Robotics, 7(5), 549–570.
Wu, T.-F., Tsai, P.-S., Hu, N.-T., & Chen, J.-Y. (2017). Intelligent wheeled mobile robots for the blind navigation application. Engineering Computations, 34(2), 214–238.