ABSTRACT
In a developing country such as Chile, the use of both functional and social robots to battle and surmount the obstacles posed by the COVID-19 pandemic is still rather isolated. In part, this is due to the novelty of the pandemic, but also due to the country's limited development of robotic initiatives. The present chapter presents and focuses on two recent robotic pilot-initiatives, deployed in some of the poorest areas of the country: flying drones to bring medicine and preventive care supplies to risk populations; and Eva, a health care robot which can check up on patients and enable social connections through telepresence. In the midst of this, in 2019 Chile started working in the creation of its future national artificial intelligence (AI) policy, a process which has faced unexpected delays, such as the Chilean social unrest in October of that same year, and most recently, the COVID-19 outbreak. While robots hold interesting promises with regards to preventing infection, executing sanitation duties, and social connectedness, the current robotics initiatives in the country are still sparse and are faced by some ethical challenges. In addition, robotics does not appear to be one key area to develop as described in the main three areas of focus of Chile's AI policy, although groups from different sectors in society are working towards defining and presenting key issues. The chapter concludes by shedding light into the process of AI policy creation, with which the country is incipiently paving its way towards a greater development in AI – of which robotics could become an important element in the future.
