M. Ryan Calo, J.D.

The AP article Life with robots seen complicated: Scientists exploring likely effects of robots in the home said

"You won't see Rosie from 'The Jetsons,' but you're going to see more and more robots that help maintain your home. They'll pick up stuff off the floor, stock your fridge, carry stuff from the car," said Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot Corp., which makes the Roomba.
 
As such 'bots become more sophisticated, they could complicate questions about product liability. Ryan Calo, a fellow with Stanford's Center for Internet and Society, pointed out in a recent panel discussion at Stanford Law School that the original manufacturer might not always be liable if a robot goes haywire.
 
"Robots are not just things the manufacturer builds and you go out and use them in a specific way. Robots can often be instructed, they can be programmed, you can have software that is built upon by others," he said.

M. Ryan Calo, J.D. is Residential Fellow at the Center for Internet & Society, Stanford Law School. Prior to joining the law school in 2008, Ryan was an associate at Covington & Burling, LLP, where he advised companies on issues of data security, privacy, and telecommunications.
 
Ryan earned his JD cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was a contributing editor to the Michigan Law Review and symposium editor of the Journal of Law Reform, and his BA in Philosophy from Dartmouth College. In 2005-2006, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable R. Guy Cole Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Prior to law school, he was an investigator of allegations of police misconduct in New York City.
 
He authored People can be so fake: A new dimension to privacy and technology scholarship and Scylla or Charybdis: Navigating the Jurisprudence of Visual Clutter.
 
Ryan researches and presents on the intersection of law and technology. He appears regularly in the media to discuss technology, including recently NPR, KCBS Morning News, ABCNews.com, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Portland Herald Press, Best Life Magazine, the San Jose Democrat, and the Christian Science Monitor.
 
Watch Stanford Expert Considers Robots and the Law and Legal Challenges in an Age of Robotics. Listen to his interview on the A-List with Jennifer Lindsay. Read his blog, his Twitter feed, his Facebook page, and his LinkedIn page. Read Woman Subject to Protective Order Arrested for Facebook "Poke", As robots become more common, Stanford experts consider the legal challenges, Robots of future may need a good lawyer, and The Power of Influence.