This volume provides a unique perspective on an emerging area of scholarship and legislative concern: the law, policy, and regulation of human-robot interaction (HRI). The increasing intelligence and human-likeness of social robots points to a challenging future for determining appropriate laws, policies, and regulations related to the design and use of AI robots. Japan, China, South Korea, and the US, along with the European Union, Australia and other countries are beginning to determine how to regulate AI-enabled robots, which concerns not only the law, but also issues of public policy and dilemmas of applied ethics affected by our personal interactions with social robots. The volume's interdisciplinary approach dissects both the specificities of multiple jurisdictions and the moral and legal challenges posed by human-like robots. As robots become more like us, so too will HRI raise issues triggered by human interactions with other people.

‘In the heat of the lively global debate on AI regulation and governance, this Handbook masterfully reveals and addresses the unique legal, ethical, and policy challenges posed by the growing presence in society of a fascinating class of robots and their intense and multifaceted interaction with humans: AI-enabled, expressive, humanoid, and anthropomorphic robots. Beyond the unsatisfying ‘tool metaphor’ to approach human–robot interaction, this Handbook beautifully redirects the conversation down the path of the technological evolution of humans: ‘we seem to be creating technical versions of humanity that are embodied as robots.’ A comprehensive, interdisciplinary, thought-provoking work that contributes to the global dialogue by posing the right and real questions in acknowledging that humanity is, in fact, approaching a critical point. Fundamental.

Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell - Charles III University of Madrid

‘This is a much needed work, which maps all the most significant social, ethical, and legal issues related to robotics, and addresses them from multiple and diverse perspectives, advanced from an amazing list of contributors. It will be equally useful for technologists, social scientists, or lawyers, but also for whoever intends to deploy robotic technologies with awareness of their social impacts, or to critically examine such deployment.’

Giovanni Sartor - European University Institute