IB Digital Society 3.7C Evolution of Robots and Autonomous Technologies Key Definitions

The tendency to attribute human traits, feelings, or intentions to a machine. It can make robots easier to interact with, but can also mislead people about what a machine really understands.

An early self-operating machine, often mechanical, that performs a fixed sequence of movements on its own. Automata were forerunners of modern robots but had no sensing or real decision-making.

The mid-twentieth-century study of control and communication in animals and machines, especially feedback loops. It helped lay the groundwork for artificial intelligence by treating thinking as information processing.

A programmable machine used in manufacturing to perform repetitive physical tasks such as welding, assembly, or packing, usually with speed and precision beyond a human worker.

The hypothetical idea that a machine could have genuine subjective experience or self-awareness, rather than only simulating it. No machine is known to be conscious, and whether it is even possible is debated.

A programmable machine that can complete a set task with little or no human intervention.

The contested idea that sufficiently advanced robots or AI might deserve some moral or legal protections. It is a speculative debate about the status we owe to machines.

A robot that performs useful tasks for people outside of manufacturing, such as cleaning, delivery, or surgery, often in homes, hospitals, or public spaces.

A robot designed to interact with people in a social way, using cues like speech, expression, or movement, for example in care, education, or companionship.

Values are the things a person or group holds to be important, and ethics are the systems of reasoning used to decide what is right, fair, or just. Together they guide how people judge and act.