Ethical Code for Robots Comes to Korea

You would think the government would have more pressing things to work on then drafting robot ethics legislation:

South Korea is drafting an ethical charter to govern how robots will function alongside humans, officials said Wednesday.  The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said the government plans to issue a "Robot Ethics Charter" for manufacturers and users to cover the ethical standards that must be programmed into the machines.

"The government plans to set ethical guidelines concerning the roles and functions of robots as robots are expected to develop strong intelligence in the near future," the ministry said in a statement.

So what is driving this?  Well, I think Korean Information and Communications Minister, Park Hye-young, has the answer:

"Imagine if some people treat androids as if the machines were their wives. Others may get addicted to interacting with them just as many internet users get hooked to the cyberworld," she said.

I can imagine what kind of addictive interacting with them Ms. Park is talking about when I read "shocking" stories like this.