Robotica

Each new communications medium, from print to radio to television and the Internet, has drawn government attempts to police both the technology and what it carries. Now artificial intelligence allows machines to produce speech of their own, and the law has yet to settle how to treat it. Ronald K. L. Collins and David M. Skover contend that the First Amendment should extend its protections and reasoning to robotic expression.

In their view, a robot's lack of humanity and its inability to form intentions do not matter. The decisive question is whether a person hears robotic speech as meaningful. The authors call this idea intentionless free speech, a concept that places constitutional protection at the point where a robot's output meets its human audience. Robotica is presented as the first book to build the legal case for such protection.

The work is aimed at law and communication scholars, practicing lawyers, and free speech advocates. It examines new problems and possible solutions where law and technology meet.