Ethical Constraints in the Development of Artificial Intelligence Kai Wang Vithusan Kuperan

History First workshop concerning AIs took place at Dartmouth College in 1956

History 1997 an AI was able to beat a reigning world chess champion 2017 an AI was able to win a 3 game series of Go playing against a champion

Can we allow AI to solve ethics-related problems? § AI Ethics Learning § AI Autonomy § AI Ethics Implementation

Top-down method Pre-program the car with moral disciplines. Problem: no philosophy so far is acceptable under all circumstances. §Kant’s categorical imperative: rule of thumb, regardless of purposes. §Consequentialism/utilitarism: do what causes the best consequence, regardless of process.

Bottom-up method Acquired experience from human behaviors, not taught any former rules Problem: Learning period is too long - accidents don’t happen everyday! Aggregated learning? What about common misbehaviors?

Can AI be autonomous? §What does the word “autonomous” mean? Roomba vacuum? Patriot missiles? Are they autonomous? §Two types of AI: AI Mind vs. AI Partners Being autonomous means having the complete volition, just like human, not just within the tasks assigned by human.

Can AI be autonomous? §Problem with AI Mind Human Interference It is unethical to interfere with a human’s autonomy, but not to “rewire” a machine! “Protect John Connor”

Can AI be autonomous? Take Responsibilities? I if self-driving car kills somebody, who to blame? The driver? The manufacturer? The car itself? Become caregivers?

How to implement ethics in AI? §Customized Ethics Setting: Example:Tesla Model S enables owners to set the distance their car maintains from the car in front of it. Cannot cover all aspects of settings. Most users tend to go with “default”.

How to implement ethics in AI? §“Ethics Bots” Learn the user’s moral preference by analyzing the user’s most frequent behaviors or his/her personal information Still a research agenda, not a program ready to take off the shelf

Conclusion Currently, incorporating ethics is still an obstacle in AI development Complexity in setting up ethical AI mind, lack in laws and regulations, difference in social responsibilities from human and other difficulties are still yet to overcome. The world still belongs to human, for now...

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