210,715 research outputs found
Autonomous Reboot: the challenges of artificial moral agency and the ends of Machine Ethics
Ryan Tonkens (2009) has issued a seemingly impossible challenge, to articulate a comprehensive ethical framework within which artificial moral agents (AMAs) satisfy a Kantian inspired recipe - both "rational" and "free" - while also satisfying perceived prerogatives of Machine Ethics to create AMAs that are perfectly, not merely reliably, ethical. Challenges for machine ethicists have also been presented by Anthony Beavers and Wendell Wallach, who have pushed for the reinvention of traditional ethics in order to avoid "ethical nihilism" due to the reduction of morality to mechanical causation, and for redoubled efforts toward a comprehensive vision of human ethics to guide machine ethicists on the issue of moral agency. Options thus present themselves: reinterpret traditional ethics in a way that affords a comprehensive account of moral agency inclusive of both artificial and natural agents, “muddle through” regardless, or give up on the possibility. This paper pursues the first option, meets Tonkens' "challenge" and addresses Wallach's concerns through Beaver's proposed means, by "landscaping" traditional moral theory in resolution of the necessary comprehensive and inclusive account that at once draws into question the stated goals of Machine Ethics, itself
Understanding Engineers' Drivers and Impediments for Ethical System Development: The Case of Privacy and Security Engineering
Machine ethics is a key challenge in times when digital systems play an increasing role in
people's life. At the core of machine ethics is the handling of personal data and the security of machine
operations. Yet, privacy and security engineering are a challenge in today's business world where personal
data markets, corporate deadlines and a lag of perfectionism frame the context in which engineers need to
work. Besides these organizational and market challenges, each engineer has his or her specific view on the
importance of these values that can foster or inhibit taking them into consideration. We present the results
of an empirical study of 124 engineers based on the Theory of Planned Behavior and Jonas' Principle of
Responsibility to understand the drivers and impediments of ethical system development as far as privacy
and security engineering are concerned. We find that many engineers find the two values important, but do
not enjoy working on them. We also find that many struggle with the organizational environment. They face a
lack of time and autonomy that is necessary for building ethical systems, even at this basic level.
Organizations' privacy and security norms are often too weak or even oppose value-based design, putting
engineers in conflict with their organizations. Our data indicate that it is largely engineers' individually
perceived responsibility as well as a few character traits that make a positive difference
Cryptocurrency with a Conscience: Using Artificial Intelligence to Develop Money that Advances Human Ethical Values
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are offering new avenues for economic empowerment
to individuals around the world. However, they also provide a powerful tool that
facilitates criminal activities such as human trafficking and illegal weapons sales
that cause great harm to individuals and communities. Cryptocurrency advocates
have argued that the ethical dimensions of cryptocurrency are not qualitatively new,
insofar as money has always been understood as a passive instrument that lacks
ethical values and can be used for good or ill purposes. In this paper, we challenge
such a presumption that money must be ‘value-neutral.’ Building on advances in
artificial intelligence, cryptography, and machine ethics, we argue that it is possible
to design artificially intelligent cryptocurrencies that are not ethically neutral but
which autonomously regulate their own use in a way that reflects the ethical values
of particular human beings – or even entire human societies. We propose a technological framework for such cryptocurrencies and then analyse the legal, ethical, and
economic implications of their use. Finally, we suggest that the development of
cryptocurrencies possessing ethical as well as monetary value can provide human
beings with a new economic means of positively influencing the ethos and values
of their societies
Engineering moral machines
This article provides a short report on a recent Dagstuhl Seminar on “Engineering Moral Agents”. Imbuing robots and autonomous systems with ethical norms and values is an increasingly urgent challenge, given rapid developments in, for example, driverless cars, unmanned air vehicles (drones), and care assistant robots. Seminar participants discussed two immediate problems. A challenge for philosophical research is the formalisation of ethics in a format that lends itself to machine implementation; a challenge for computer science and robotics is the actual implementation of moral reasoning and conduct in autonomous systems. This article reports on these two challenges
Taking Turing by Surprise? Designing Digital Computers for morally-loaded contexts
There is much to learn from what Turing hastily dismissed as Lady Lovelace s
objection. Digital computers can indeed surprise us. Just like a piece of art,
algorithms can be designed in such a way as to lead us to question our
understanding of the world, or our place within it. Some humans do lose the
capacity to be surprised in that way. It might be fear, or it might be the
comfort of ideological certainties. As lazy normative animals, we do need to be
able to rely on authorities to simplify our reasoning: that is ok. Yet the
growing sophistication of systems designed to free us from the constraints of
normative engagement may take us past a point of no-return. What if, through
lack of normative exercise, our moral muscles became so atrophied as to leave
us unable to question our social practices? This paper makes two distinct
normative claims:
1. Decision-support systems should be designed with a view to regularly
jolting us out of our moral torpor.
2. Without the depth of habit to somatically anchor model certainty, a
computer s experience of something new is very different from that which in
humans gives rise to non-trivial surprises. This asymmetry has key
repercussions when it comes to the shape of ethical agency in artificial moral
agents. The worry is not just that they would be likely to leap morally ahead
of us, unencumbered by habits. The main reason to doubt that the moral
trajectories of humans v. autonomous systems might remain compatible stems from
the asymmetry in the mechanisms underlying moral change. Whereas in humans
surprises will continue to play an important role in waking us to the need for
moral change, cognitive processes will rule when it comes to machines. This
asymmetry will translate into increasingly different moral outlooks, to the
point of likely unintelligibility. The latter prospect is enough to doubt the
desirability of autonomous moral agents
Challenges for an Ontology of Artificial Intelligence
Of primary importance in formulating a response to the increasing prevalence and power of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in society are questions of ontology. Questions such as: What “are” these systems? How are they to be regarded? How does an algorithm come to be regarded as an agent? We discuss three factors which hinder discussion and obscure attempts to form a clear ontology of AI: (1) the various and evolving definitions of AI, (2) the tendency for pre-existing technologies to be assimilated and regarded as “normal,” and (3) the tendency of human beings to anthropomorphize. This list is not intended as exhaustive, nor is it seen to preclude entirely a clear ontology, however, these challenges are a necessary set of topics for consideration. Each of these factors is seen to present a 'moving target' for discussion, which poses a challenge for both technical specialists and non-practitioners of AI systems development (e.g., philosophers and theologians) to speak meaningfully given that the corpus of AI structures and capabilities evolves at a rapid pace. Finally, we present avenues for moving forward, including opportunities for collaborative synthesis for scholars in philosophy and science
Intelligent Agents in Military, Defense and Warfare: Ethical Issues and Concerns
Due to tremendous progress in digital electronics now intelligent and autonomous agents are gradually being adopted into the fields and domains of the military, defense and warfare. This paper tries to explore some of the inherent ethical issues, threats and some remedial issues about the impact of such systems on human civilization and existence in general. This paper discusses human ethics in contrast to machine ethics and the problems caused by non-sentient agents. A systematic study is made on paradoxes regarding the long-term advantages of such agents in military combat. This paper proposes an international standard which could be adopted by all nations to bypass the adverse effects and solve ethical issues of such intelligent agents
Autonomous Vehicles – a New Challenge to Human Rights?
New technologies, as autonomous vehicles are, disrupt the way people exist, and con-sequently with human rights. Research devoted to artificial intelligence and robotics moves freely and the destination, for the time being, is unknown. This is the reason why special attention should be paid to the ethics of these branches of computer science in order to prevent the creation of a crisis point, when human beings are no longer neces-sary.. The aim of this paper is to examine whether such development is a new challenge to human rights law and what happens when an autonomous vehicle drives an autono-mous human being. The paper also mentions the desirable level of human control over the machine so that human dignity, from which human rights originate, is preserved
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