Kantian Moral Agency and the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

This paper discusses the philosophical issues pertaining to Kantian moral agency and artificial intelligence (AI). Here, our objective is to offer a comprehensive analysis of Kantian ethics to elucidate the non-feasibility of Kantian machines. Meanwhile, the possibility of Kantian machines seems to contend with the genuine human Kantian agency. We argue that in machine morality, ‘duty’ should be performed with ‘freedom of will’ and ‘happiness’ because Kant narrated the human tendency of evaluating our ‘natural necessity’ through ‘happiness’ as the end. Lastly, we argue that the Kantian ‘freedom of will’ and ‘faculty of choice’ do not belong to any deterministic model of ‘agency’ as these are sacrosanct systems. The conclusion narrates the non-feasibility of Kantian AI agents from the genuine Kantian ethical outset, offering a utility-based Kantian ethical performer instead

Mortal Computation: A Foundation for Biomimetic Intelligence

This review motivates and synthesizes research efforts in neuroscience-inspired artificial intelligence and biomimetic computing in terms of mortal computation. Specifically, we characterize the notion of mortality by recasting ideas in biophysics, cybernetics, and cognitive science in terms of a theoretical foundation for sentient behavior. We frame the mortal computation thesis through the Markov blanket formalism and the circular causality entailed by inference, learning, and selection. The ensuing framework -- underwritten by the free energy principle -- could prove useful for guiding the construction of unconventional connectionist computational systems, neuromorphic intelligence, and chimeric agents, including sentient organoids, which stand to revolutionize the long-term future of embodied, enactive artificial intelligence and cognition research.Comment: Several revisions applied, corrected error in Jarzynski equality equation (w/ new citaion); references and citations now correctly aligne

Can a Robot Have Free Will?

Using insights from cybernetics and an information-based understanding of biological systems, a precise, scientifically inspired, definition of free-will is offered and the essential requirements for an agent to possess it in principle are set out. These are: (a) there must be a self to self-determine; (b) there must be a non-zero probability of more than one option being enacted; (c) there must be an internal means of choosing among options (which is not merely random, since randomness is not a choice). For (a) to be fulfilled, the agent of self-determination must be organisationally closed (a “Kantian whole”). For (c) to be fulfilled: (d) options must be generated from an internal model of the self which can calculate future states contingent on possible responses; (e) choosing among these options requires their evaluation using an internally generated goal defined on an objective function representing the overall “master function” of the agent and (f) for “deep free-will”, at least two nested levels of choice and goal (d–e) must be enacted by the agent. The agent must also be able to enact its choice in physical reality. The only systems known to meet all these criteria are living organisms, not just humans, but a wide range of organisms. The main impediment to free-will in present-day artificial robots, is their lack of being a Kantian whole. Consciousness does not seem to be a requirement and the minimum complexity for a free-will system may be quite low and include relatively simple life-forms that are at least able to learn