Toward a general logicist methodology for engineering ethically correct robots,”

Abstract It is hard to deny that robots will become increasingly capable, and that humans will increasingly exploit this capability by deploying them in ethically sensitive environments; i.e., in environments (e.g., hospitals) where ethically incorrect behavior on the part of robots could have dire effects on humans. But then how will we ensure that the robots in question always behave in an ethically correct manner? How can we know ahead of time, via rationales expressed in clear English (and/or other so-called natural languages), that they will so behave? How can we know in advance that their behavior will be constrained specifically by the ethical codes selected by human overseers? In general, it seems clear that one reply worth considering, put in encapsulated form, is this one: "By insisting that our robots only perform actions that can be proved ethically permissible in a human-selected deontic logic." (A deontic logic is simply a logic that formalizes an ethical code.) This approach ought to be explored for a number of reasons. One is that ethicists themselves work by rendering ethical theories and dilemmas in declarative form, and by reasoning over this declarative information using informal and/or formal logic. Other reasons in favor of pursuing the logicist solution are presented in the paper itself. To illustrate the feasibility of our methodology, we describe it in general terms free of any committment to particular systems, and show it solving a challenge regarding robot behavior in an intensive care unit

Harnessing Higher-Order (Meta-)Logic to Represent and Reason with Complex Ethical Theories

The computer-mechanization of an ambitious explicit ethical theory, Gewirth's Principle of Generic Consistency, is used to showcase an approach for representing and reasoning with ethical theories exhibiting complex logical features like alethic and deontic modalities, indexicals, higher-order quantification, among others. Harnessing the high expressive power of Church's type theory as a meta-logic to semantically embed a combination of quantified non-classical logics, our work pushes existing boundaries in knowledge representation and reasoning. We demonstrate that intuitive encodings of complex ethical theories and their automation on the computer are no longer antipodes.Comment: 14 page

Landscape of Machine Implemented Ethics

This paper surveys the state-of-the-art in machine ethics, that is, considerations of how to implement ethical behaviour in robots, unmanned autonomous vehicles, or software systems. The emphasis is on covering the breadth of ethical theories being considered by implementors, as well as the implementation techniques being used. There is no consensus on which ethical theory is best suited for any particular domain, nor is there any agreement on which technique is best placed to implement a particular theory. Another unresolved problem in these implementations of ethical theories is how to objectively validate the implementations. The paper discusses the dilemmas being used as validating 'whetstones' and whether any alternative validation mechanism exists. Finally, it speculates that an intermediate step of creating domain-specific ethics might be a possible stepping stone towards creating machines that exhibit ethical behaviour.Comment: 25 page

Synchronous Online Philosophy Courses: An Experiment in Progress

There are two main ways to teach a course online: synchronously or asynchronously. In an asynchronous course, students can log on at their convenience and do the course work. In a synchronous course, there is a requirement that all students be online at specific times, to allow for a shared course environment. In this article, the author discusses the strengths and weaknesses of synchronous online learning for the teaching of undergraduate philosophy courses. The author discusses specific strategies and technologies he uses in the teaching of online philosophy courses. In particular, the author discusses how he uses videoconferencing to create a classroom-like environment in an online class

Ethical governance is essential to building trust in robotics and artificial intelligence systems

© 2018 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. This paper explores the question of ethical governance for robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) systems. We outline a roadmap-which links a number of elements, including ethics, standards, regulation, responsible research and innovation, and public engagement-as a framework to guide ethical governance in robotics and AI. We argue that ethical governance is essential to building public trust in robotics and AI, and conclude by proposing five pillars of good ethical governance. This article is part of the theme issue 'Governing artificial intelligence: ethical, legal, and technical opportunities and challenges'