Asimov for Lawmakers

Are Isaac Asimov’s books on lawmakers’ bedside tables? Many emerging laws on Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) mention Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics. But should they? Asimov’s stories describe failures of the Three Laws, not successes. This paper attempts to address this question by diving into Asimov’s works of and on science fiction. The paper shows that the wisdom that lawmakers can derive from Asimov’s writing is different from the regulation by design approach embodied in the Three Laws. Seven nuanced lessons about technological change, and the way societies respond to it, emerge from Asimov’s works.