Embodied AI Safety

Embodied AI (eAI) uses artificial intelligence based on machine learning to interact with the physical world. We are already seeing eAI deployed in the real world in robotaxis, smart medical devices, household robots, and other applications. However, everyone is struggling with the safety of these devices: how to design for safety, how to evaluate safety, and how to think about whether any particular eAI system is acceptably safe.

This book provides a foundation for thinking about the topic of eAI safety that is accessible to a non-specialist technical audience. Robotaxi safety is used as a concrete example. Early chapters provide an introduction to safety engineering, cybersecurity engineering, machine learning technology, and human/computer interaction. Later chapters cover eAI safety challenges in the wild, the complexities of establishing what risks might be acceptable, and open challenges in eAI safety. A proposal for reimagining safety engineering responds to the huge disruption that eAI technology creates when applying traditional computer-based system safety approaches. In the end, what we need are ways to build justifiable trust in eAI safety.