Can there really be ethical robots for autistic children?

With the advancement of autonomous technologies such as AI-driven social robots, the academic discussions around ethical standards have intensified over the years. These discussions have resulted in increased emphasis on concepts such as safety, trust, privacy, human dignity and well-being along with variety of ethical frameworks proposed by scholars. In parallel with these technological developments, therapeutic interventions for autistic children assisted by AI and social robots have also attracted increased attention. Against this backdrop, this paper critically examines six social robotics projects funded under the EU’s Horizon 2020 initiative from an ethics perspective. The main aim of these completed projects was to develop AI-driven semi-autonomous technologies such as humanoid and non-humanoid robots to assist autism interventions. To address the ethical shortcomings of the said projects, this paper mobilizes perspectives from critical disability studies, critical autism studies and the autism community itself, particularly concerning the negative impact of interventions on autistic individuals as a neurominority group. Beyond the commonly addressed shortcomings in the field of AI and social robotics, the article highlights that the biggest shortcoming of these projects is the absence of critical reflection on the ethical acceptability of applying neuronormative behavioral interventions to a neurominority group. By situating robot-assisted interventions within the context of normalization and technoableism, the article points out the epistemic injustice and the harm that can be potentially enacted on autistic people through such technologically aided interventions. Ultimately, the paper questions whether ethical assistive technologies for autistic individuals can exist under these circumstances.