The way the robotics industry is growing, it is leading some people to start pushing the United States government towards a Federal Robotics Commission. In particular, one think tank is calling for the commission to be set up sooner rather than later. The agency needs to be established to deal with regulation and ethical challenges of robots and artificial intelligence, according to the Brookings Institute.

The Guardian reports Brookings says that if the U.S. doesn’t start this kind of a commission, it could lead to other nations in the world taking the lead on robotics. “Much of the problem turns on the lack of familiarity with robotics and the sorts of issues the mainstreaming of this technology occasions,” argues Ryan Calo, the Brooking Institute’s report’s author. “The FAA does not know what to say to Amazon about delivering goods by drone, and so it says ‘no.’”

Brookings believes such an agency would be incredibly important when it comes to tackling interrelated issues such as problems faced by autonomous devices and software in areas such as driverless cars and Twitter (News - Alert) bots. The agency would deal with issues like liability when it comes to those who are using inventions like Twitter bots and those who have created them.

The real issue, according to Brookings is that the lack of real and direct oversight by a government agency could end up setting back a field like robotics in the long run. Brookings argues that in something like a driverless car, a robot is able to avoid both a baby carriage and a grocery cart but has problems deciding which is more important to avoid. If a headline reading “robot car hits baby, avoids groceries” it will mean robot cars will become less popular and could go away for several years. If there is a commission available it might help to develop this kind of technology and regulate it in such a way that huge setbacks can be avoided.