Artificial Intelligence, Robots, and Philosophy

This book is a collection of all the papers published in the special issue “Artificial Intelligence, Robots, and Philosophy,” Journal of Philosophy of Life, Vol.13, No.1, 2023, pp.1-146. The authors discuss a variety of topics such as science fiction and space ethics, the philosophy of artificial intelligence, the ethics of autonomous agents, and virtuous robots. Through their discussions, readers are able to think deeply about the essence of modern technology and the future of humanity. All papers were invited and completed in spring 2020, though because of the Covid-19 pandemic and other problems, the publication was delayed until this year. I apologize to the authors and potential readers for the delay. I hope that readers will enjoy these arguments on digital technology and its relationship with philosophy. *** Contents*** Introduction : Descartes and Artificial Intelligence; Masahiro Morioka*** Isaac Asimov and the Current State of Space Science Fiction : In the Light of Space Ethics; Shin-ichiro Inaba*** Artificial Intelligence and Contemporary Philosophy : Heidegger, Jonas, and Slime Mold; Masahiro Morioka*** Implications of Automating Science : The Possibility of Artificial Creativity and the Future of Science; Makoto Kureha*** Why Autonomous Agents Should Not Be Built for War; István Zoltán Zárdai*** Wheat and Pepper : Interactions Between Technology and Humans; Minao Kukita*** Clockwork Courage : A Defense of Virtuous Robots; Shimpei Okamoto*** Reconstructing Agency from Choice; Yuko Murakami*** Gushing Prose : Will Machines Ever be Able to Translate as Badly as Humans?; Rossa Ó Muireartaigh**

Fight Bias with Bias? Two Interventions for Mitigating the Selective Avoidance of Clicking Uncongenial Facts

Selective avoidance of facts that are uncongenial to preexisting false beliefs is a biased click behavior that decreases the effect of correcting misinformation. This study examined the strength of this avoidance tendency and whether interventions could reduce it. In a preregistered experiment with 1,203 participants, we compared two different types of interventions: an intervention with instruction that directly calls for reflection via text (instruction intervention); an intervention with a ranking-biased order that induces people to click on what they easily see and vice versa (ranking-biased intervention). The results showed no significant effect of the instruction intervention. However, ranking-biased intervention showed preventive outcomes regarding participants’ selective avoidance behaviors and promoted clicking on links to uncongenial facts. The ranking-biased intervention was effective for participants with high reflexiveness as well as for participants with low reflexiveness. We discuss the implication of interaction between the interventions and click behavior based on cognitive characteristics