1

Do we need Do we need robot robot

morality?morality?

WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE?

1. Pragmatic definition of intelligence: “an intelligent system is a system with the ability to act appropriately (or make an appropriate choice or decision) in an uncertain environment.”

– An appropriate action (or choice) is that which maximizes the probability of successfully achieving the mission goals (or the purpose of the system)

2. Intelligence need not be at the human level

3

Human-Robot Human-Robot InteractionInteraction

interaction

intelligence morality

Consciousness?Consciousness?

Robot Morality is a relatively new Robot Morality is a relatively new research area which is becoming research area which is becoming very popular because of military very popular because of military

and assistive robotics.and assistive robotics.

WHY ROBOT MORALITY ? Robots are becoming

technically extremely sophisticated.

The emerging robot is a machine with sensors, processors, and effectors able to perceive the environment, have situational awareness, make appropriate decisions, and act upon the environment Various sensors: active and

passive optical and ladar vision, acoustic, ultrasonic, RF, microwave, touch, etc.

Various effectors: propellers, wheels, tracks, legs, hybrids

These robots live in human environment and can harm humans physically.

Military unmanned vehicles are robotsSpace, air, ground, water

6

Ethical concerns: Ethical concerns: RobotRobot behavior behavior

• How do we want our intelligent systems to behave?

• How can we ensure they do so?

• Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow

a human being to come to harm.2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where

such orders would conflict with the First Law.3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection

does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

7

Ethical concerns: Human behavior

1. Is it morally justified to create intelligent systems with these constraints?– As a secondary question, would it be possible to do so?

2. Should intelligent systems have free will? Can we prevent them from having free will??

3. Will intelligent systems have consciousness? (Strong AI) – If they do, will it drive them insane to be constrained by artificial ethics

placed on them by humans?

4. If intelligent systems develop their own ethics and morality, will we like what they come up with?

Department of Defense (DOD) PATH TOWARD AUTONOMY

A POTPOURRI OF MILITARY ROBOTSA POTPOURRI OF MILITARY ROBOTS Many taxonomies have been used for robotic air, ground, and water vehicles:

based on size, endurance, mission, user, C3 link, propulsion, mobility, altitude, level of autonomy, etc., etc.

All autonomous future military robots will need morality, household and assistive robots as well

WHICH TECHNOLOGIES ARE RELATED TO ROBOT MORALITY?

Various control system architectures:

deliberative, reactive, hybrid

Various command, control, and communications systems:

cable, fiber optic, RF, laser, acoustic

Various human/machine interfaces:

displays, telepresence, virtual reality

Various theories of intelligence and autonomy;

Evolutionary Probabilistic Learning Developmental Cognitive

Can we build morality without Can we build morality without intelligence?intelligence?

The Tokyo University of Science: Saya

Morality for non-military robots that deal Morality for non-military robots that deal directly with humans.directly with humans.

13

Robots that look human

• "Robots that look human tend to be a big hit with young children and the elderly," – Hiroshi Kobayashi, Tokyo University of Science

professor and Saya's developer, said yesterday.

• "Children even start crying when they are scolded."

14

Human-Robot Interaction with human-like humanoid robots

• "Simply turning our grandparents over to teams of robots abrogates our society's responsibility to each other, and encourages a loss of touch with reality for this already mentally and physically challenged population,„– Kobayashi said.

15

Can robots replace humans?

• Noel Sharkey, robotics expert and professor at the University of Sheffield, believes robots can serve as an educational aid in inspiring interest in science, but they can't replace humans.

16

Robot to help people?http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/12/content_10995694.htm

• Kobayashi says Saya is just meant to help help people people and warns against getting hopes up too high for its possibilities.

• "The robot has no intelligence. It has no ability to learn. It has no identity," he said. "It is just a tool.„

Receptionist Receptionist robotsrobots

18

Receptionist

19

MechaDroyd Typ C3Business Design, Japan

What kind of morality we expect from:- Robot for disabled?- Receptionist robot?- Robot housemaide?- Robot guide ?

20

Human RobotHuman RobotInteraction:Interaction:

Robots for elderly in Robots for elderly in JapanJapan

21

Jobs for robotshttp://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKT27506220080408

• TOKYO (Reuters) - Robots could fill the jobs of 3.5 million people in graying Japan by 2025,– a thinktank says, helping to avert worker

shortages as the country's population shrinks.

22

Robots to fill jobs in Japan

• Japan faces a 16 percent slide in the size of its workforce by 2030 while the number of elderly will mushroom, the government estimates, raising worries about who will do the work in a country unused to, and unwilling to contemplate, large-scale immigration.

23

HR-Interaction in Japan

• The thinktank, the Machine Industry Memorial Foundation, says robots could help fill the gaps, ranging from microsized capsules that detect lesions to high-tech vacuum cleaners.

Robots to fill jobs in Japan

24

HR-Interaction in Japan

• Rather than each robot replacing one person, the foundation said in a report that robots could make time for people to focus on more important things.“

Robots to fill jobs in Japan

25

What is more important than work?

• What kind of „more important things“?

• This is an ethical question.

26

using robots that monitor the health of using robots that monitor the health of older people older people in Japanin Japan

„Japan could save 2.1 trillion yen ($21 billion) of elderly insurance payments in 2025 by using robots that monitor the health of older people, so they don't have to rely on human nursing care, the foundation said in its report.

Plans for robot nursing in Japan

• What are the consequences for relying on robot nursing?

• This is an ethical question.

Assistive Robots

• Caregivers would save more than an hour a day if robots:1. helped look after children, 2. helped older people,3. did some housework4. reading books out loud5. helping bathe the elderly

How children and elderly will respond?

1. How will children and elderly react to robots taking „care“ of them?

2. This is an ethical question.

Seniors in Japan– "Seniors are pushing back their retirement until

they are 65 years old, – day care centers are being built so that more

women can work during the day, – and there is a move to increase the quota of

foreign laborers. – But none of these can beat the shrinking

workforce," • said Takao Kobayashi, who worked on the

study.

HR-Interaction in Japan

"Robots are important because they could help in some ways to alleviate such shortage of the labor force."

Seniors in Japan

HR-Interaction in Japan

• How far will they alleviate such shortage of the labor force?

• And with what consequences?

• This is an ethical question.

Seniors in Japan

HR-Interaction in Japan

• Kobayashi said changes was still needed for robots to make a big impact on the workforce.

• "There's the expensive price tag, the functions of the robots still need to improve, and then there are the mindsets of people," he said.

• "People need to have the will to use the robots."

Seniors in Japan

HR-Interaction in Japan

The „mindsets of people“: This is THE ethical question!

Seniors in Japan

EntertainmentEntertainment robotsrobots

First robots in Entertainment Neologism derived from Czech noun

"robota" meaning "labor" Contrary to the popular opinion, not

originated by (but first popularized by) Karel Capek, the author of RUR

Originated by Josef Capek, Karel’s older brother (a painter and writer)

“Robot” first appeared in Karel Capek’s play RUR, published in 1920 Some claim that "robot" was first used in

Josef Capek's short story Opilec (the Drunkard) published in the collection Lelio in 1917, but the word used in Opilec is "automat“

Robots revolt against their human masters – a cautionary lesson now as then

WHAT IS A ROBOT? Many taxonomies

Control taxonomy Pre-programmed (automatons) Remotely-controlled (telerobots) Supervised autonomous Autonomous

Operational medium taxonomy Space Air Ground Sea Hybrid

Functional taxonomy Military Industrial Household Commercial

Etc.

Entertainmenthttp://www.thepartypups.co/

Sony: Aibo

Football

RoboCup

„Love robots“ in Japanhttp://jankcl.wordpress.com/2007/08/12/lovecom-18/

EMA (Eternal Maiden Actualization) in Japanhttp://www.fun-on.com/technology_robot_girlfriend.php

What kind of What kind of intelligence and intelligence and morality you morality you would expect would expect from an ideal from an ideal robot for robot for entertainment?entertainment?

Why Ethics Why Ethics of Robots?of Robots?

Why Ethics of Robots?1. Robots behave according to rules we program

2. We are responsible for their behavior

3. But as they are „autonomous“ they can „decide“ what to do or not in a specific situation

4.4. This is the human/robot moral dilemmaThis is the human/robot moral dilemma

Ethics of Robots: West and East

Rougly speaking:1.1. Europe: Europe: Deontology (Autonomy, Human Dignity,

Privacy, Anthropocentrism): Scepticism with regard to robots

2.2. USA USA (and anglo-saxon tradition): Utilitarian Ethics: will robots make „us“ more happy?

3.3. Eastern Tradition (Buddhism): Eastern Tradition (Buddhism): Robots as one more partner in the global interaction of things

Ethics & Robots: West and East

• Morality and Ethics: 1. Ethics as critical reflection (or problematization)

of morality 2. Ethics is the science of morals as robotics is the

science of robots

Concrete moral traditionsConcrete moral traditions

• Different ontic or concrete historical moral traditions, for instance 1. in Japan:

1. Seken (trad. Japanese morality), 2. Shakai (imported Western morality) 3. Ikai (old animistic tradition)

2. In the „Far West“: 1. Ethics of the Good (Plato, Aristotle), 2. Christian Ethics, 3. Utilitarian Ethics, 4. Deontological Ethics (Kant)

Ethics & Robots: Ontological DimensionsOntological Dimensions

• Ontological dimension: Being or (Buddhist) – Nothingness as the space of open possibilities that allow

us to critizise ontic moralities

• Always related to basic moods (like sadness, happiness, astonishment, …)– through which the uniqueness of the world and human

existence is experienced (differently in different cultures)

Asimo‘s evolutionhttp://www.rob.cs.tu-bs.de/teaching/courses/seminar/Laufen_Mensch_vs_Roboter/

Asimo‘s evolutionhttp://www.rob.cs.tu-bs.de/teaching/courses/seminar/Laufen_Mensch_vs_Roboter/

If the robot looks like a human, do we have different expectations?

Would you “kill” a robot car?

Would you “kill” a robot insect that would react by squeaky noises and escape in panic?

Would you “kill” a robot biped that would react by begging you to save his life?

Why Ethics Why Ethics of Robots?of Robots?

Why Ethics of Robots?

• Ethics is thinking about human rules of good/bad behavior:1. Towards each other2. Towards non-human living beings3. Towards the environment4. Towards artificial products5. Towards other societies or nations6. Towards the God or gods, culture-depending

AAAA versus versus ACAC versus versus AEAE versus versus AIAI??

• Artificial Agency (AA)• Artificial Consciousness (AC)• Artificial Ethics (AE)• Artificial Intelligence

… our interaction with them;

… and our ethical relation to them.

ARTIFICIAL ARTIFICIAL CONSCIOUSNESSCONSCIOUSNESS

Artificial X

• One kind of definition-schema:

• Creating machines which perform in ways which require X when humans perform in those ways…– (or which justify the attribution of X?)

• ‘Outward’ performance, versus psychological reality ‘within’?

X= Intelligence, = Life, = Morality, etc.

Artificial Consciousness

• Artificial Consciousness (ACAC): creating machines which perform in ways which

require consciousness when humans perform in those ways (?)

• Where is the psychological reality of consciousness in this? ‘functional’ versus ‘phenomenal’ consciousness?

Shallow and deep AC research

• Shallow AC – developing functional replications of consciousness in artificial agents

– Without any claim to inherent psychological realitypsychological reality

• Deep AC – developing psychologically real (‘phenomenal’) consciousness

Continuum or divide?

• Continuum or divide? (discrete or analog?)

– Is deep AC realizable using current computationally-based technologies (or does it require biological replications)?

– Will it require Quantum Computing or biology-like computing?

• ThinThin versus thick phenomenality

– (See S.Torrance ‘Two Concepts of Machine Phenomenality’, (to be submitted, JCS)

Real versus simulated AC -an ethically significant boundary?

1. Psychologically real versus just simulated artificial consciousness…

-> This appears to mark an ethically significant boundary

(perhaps unlike the comparable boundary in AI?)

• Not to deny that debates like the Chinese Room the Chinese Room have aroused strong passions over many years…

– Working in the area of ACAC– (unlike working in AI?)

– … puts special ethical responsibilities on shoulders of researchers

Techno-ethics• This takes us into the area of techno-ethics –

– Reflection on the ethical responsibilities of those who are involved in technological R & D

(including the technologies of artificial agents (AI, robotics, MC, etc.))

• Broadly, techno-ethics can be defined as:– Reflection on how we, as developers and users of technologies,…ought to use such technologies to best meet

our existing ethical ends,our existing ethical ends,within existing ethical frameworkswithin existing ethical frameworks

– Much of the ethics of artificial agent research comesMuch of the ethics of artificial agent research comes under the general techno-ethics umbrellaunder the general techno-ethics umbrella

From techno-ethics toartificial ethics

• What’s special about the artificial agent research is that the artificial agents so produced may count (in various senses) as ethical agents in their own right– This may involve a revision of our existing ethical conceptions

in various ways– Particularly when we are engaged in research in

(progressively deeper) artificial consciousness

• Bearing this in mind, we need to distinguish between techno-ethics and artificial ethics– (The latter may overlap with the former)

Techno-ethics Techno-ethics – our responsibility for our creations

Artificial ethics Artificial ethics – what ethics we will put to future robots

ARTIFICIAL ARTIFICIAL ETHICSETHICS

Towards artificial ethics Towards artificial ethics (AE)(AE)

• A key puzzle in AE– Perhaps ethical reality (or real ethical status) goes

together with psychological reality??

Can a robot be ethical if he is not psychologically similar to you?

Shallow and deep AE• Shallow AE –

1. Developing ways in which the artificial agents we produce can conform to, simulate, the ethical constraints we believe desirable

2. (Perhaps a sub-field of techno-ethics?)

• Deep AE –– Creating beings with inherent ethical status?

• Rights of robots, rights of human “owners” of robots?

• Responsibilities of robots, responsibilities of humans towards robots?

• The boundaries between shallow and deep AE may be perceived as fuzzy– And may be intrinsically fuzzy…

You do not want your robot to hurt humans (or other robots?)

Proliferation of new technologies in the world

• A reason for taking this issue seriously:

– AA, AC, etc. as potential mass-technologies

• Tendency for successful technologies to proliferate across the globe

– What if AC becomes a widely adopted technology?

• This should raise questions both:– of a techno-ethical kind; – and of a kind specific to AE

1.1. Every body would like Every body would like to have a robot slave.to have a robot slave.

2.2. Every educated/rich Every educated/rich roman had a slaveroman had a slave

3.3. Every professor in 19 Every professor in 19 century had a maid.century had a maid.

InstrumentalityInstrumental versus intrinsic stance

– Normally we take our technologies as our tools or instruments

• Instrumental/intrinsic division in relation to psychological reality of consciousness?

• As we progress towards deep AC there could be a blurring of the boundaries between the two…

– (already seen in a small way with emerging ‘caring’ attitudes of humans towards ‘people-friendly’ robots)

• This is one illustration of the move from ‘conventional’ techno-ethics and artificial ethicsInstrumental – robot is just a device

Intrinsic – if an old lady has a robot that she loves, her children cannot just throw the old robot to the garbage can.

Artificial Ethics (AE)

• AE could be defined as– The activity of creating systems which perform in ways which

imply (or confer) the possession of ethical status when humans perform in those ways. (?)

• The emphasis on performance could be questioned

• What is the relation between AE and Artificial Consciousness (AC)?

• What is ethical (moral) status?

Two key elements Two key elements of moral status of of moral status of

a robota robot

( Totality of moral agents )1. Can robot harm community?2. Can community harm the robot?

( Totality of moral agents )

( one moral agent )

X is a X is a member of member of communitycommunity

Two key elements of X’s moralTwo key elements of X’s moralstatus (in the eyes of Y)status (in the eyes of Y)

• (a) X’s being the recipient or target of moral concern by Y (moral consumption) [Y X]

• (b) X’s being the source of moral concern towards Y (moral production) [X Y]

Ethical status in the absence ofin the absence ofconsciousnessconsciousness

1. Trying to refine our conception on the relation between AC and AE

2. What difference does consciousness make to artificial agency?

3. In order to shed light on this question we need to investigate

– the putative ethical status of artificial agents (AAs) when (psychologically real) consciousness is acknowledged to be ABSENT.

Retired general has a superintelligent robot that does not look like a human and is not psychologically humanoid. Can he dismantle the robot to pieces for fun? Can he shoot at him as he paid for it?

Our ethical interaction with non-conscious artificial agents…

• ?? Could non-conscious artificial agents have genuine moral status …

• (a) As moral consumers?– (having moral claims on us)

• (b) As moral producers?– (having moral responsibilities towards us (and

themselves))The dog or horse that kills a human is ordered by the law to be killed

The robot that kills a human is

killed???

A Strong View of AEA Strong View of AE• ‘Psychologically real’ consciousness is necessary

for AAs to be considered BOTHBOTH(a)as genuine moral consumersAND(b) as genuine moral producers

• – AND there are strong constraints on what counts as ‘psychologically real’ consciousness.

• So, on the ‘strong’ view, non-conscious AAs will have no real ethical status

The MIT “strong AI researchers” will be now in trouble, explain why?

• One way to weaken the strong view:– by accepting weaker criteria for what counts as

‘psychologically real’ consciousness –

– e.g. by saying ‘Of course you need consciousness for ethical status, but soon robots, etc. will be conscious in a psychologically real sense.’

A weaker view of AEA weaker view of AE• Psychologically real consciousness is NOT

necessary for an Artificial Agent (AA) to be considered– (a) as a genuine moral producermoral producer

• (i.e. as having genuine moral responsibilities)

• But it may be necessary for an AA to be considered– (b) as a genuine moral consumer

• (i.e. as having genuine moral claims moral claims on the moral community)

A version of the weaker view A version of the weaker view is to be found in:

1. Floridi, L. and Sanders, J. 2004. On the Morality of Artificial Agents, Minds and Machines , 14(3): 349-379.

Floridi & Sanders: Some (quite ‘weak’ * kinds of) artificial agents may be considered as having a genuine kind of moral moral ‘accountability‘accountability’• even if not moral ‘responsibility’ in a full-blooded sense

– * ( i.e. this kind of moral status may attach to such agents quite independently of their status as conscious agents)

Examining the strong view

• See Steve Torrance, “Ethics and Consciousness in Artificial Agents”, Artificial Intelligence and Society

• Being a fully morally responsible agent requires1. empathetic intelligence or rationality;2. moral emotions or sensibilities

• These seem to require presence of psychologically real consciousnesspsychologically real consciousness

• BUT….

Shallow artificial ethics: a paradox

• Paradox:

– Even if not conscious, we will expect artificial agents to behave ‘responsibly’ – To perform ‘outwardly’ to ethical standards of conduct

• This creates an urgent and very challenging programme of research for now…

developing appropriate ‘shallow’ ethical simulations…1. How you can make a robot responsible for its actions if he has

no real morality.2. If he has real morality you cannot kill him.

Who is responsible: robot or the designer?

• Locus of responsibility

• Where would the locus of responsibility of such systems lie?

– For example, when they ‘break down’, give wrong advice, etc…?

• On current consensus: With designers, operators rather than with AA itself.

• If only with human designers/users, then such ‘moral’ AAs don’t seem to have genuine moral status – even as moral producers?

»BUT…1. Is Alan responsible if his robot will insult the US

President during a visit?2. Is the robot responsible?3. Is PSU responsible?4. Perkowski?

Moral implications of increasingcognitive superiority of AAs

• We’ll communicate with artificial agents (AAs) in richer and subtler ways

• We may look to AAs for ‘moral’ advice and support• We may defer to their normative decisions

– E.g when multiplicity of factors require superior cognitive powers to humans Automated ‘moral pilot’ systems?

Busy parents professionals will rely on a robot to give moral advice to their children.

Whom to blame for bad behavior of children?

What if the child will love robot more than the Mommie?

Roman children loved often their Greek slave teachers more than parents.

Non-conscious AAs asmoral producers

• None of these properties seem to requirerequire consciousness So the strong view seems to be in doubt? Perhaps non-conscious AAs can be genuine moral

producers

• The question of ‘When can we trust a moral judgment When can we trust a moral judgment given by a machine?’given by a machine?’ See answer in: Blay Whitby, “Computing Machinery and

Morality” submitted, AI and Society

Killing a slave or “low-class” people in the past

• So…

• So non-conscious artificial agents perhaps could be ‘genuine’ moral producers

– At least in limited sorts of ways

• In contrast, in a paper ‘Ethics andConsciousness in Artificial Agents’ the author believes:

• Having the capacity for genuine morallyresponsible judgment and action require a kind ofempathic rationality

• And it’s difficult to see how such empathic rationalitycould exist in a being which didn’t have psychologicallyreal consciousness

• In any case, it will be a hard and complexjob to ensure that

the “robots designed for morality” will simulate moral production in an ethically acceptable way.

Non-conscious Non-conscious AAs asAAs asmoral moral

consumersconsumers

Non-conscious AAs asNon-conscious AAs asmoral consumersmoral consumers

• What about non-conscious AAs as moralmoral consumersconsumers?– (i.e. as candidates for our moral concern)?– Our moral responsibility for a robot?

• Could it ever be rational for us to consider ourselves as having genuine moral obligations towards non-conscious AAs?

Consciousness andConsciousness andmoral consumptionmoral consumption

• At first sight – being a ‘true’ moralconsumer seems to require beingable to consciously experience pain,distress, need, satisfaction, joy,sorrow, etc.

– i.e. psychologically real consciousness

• Otherwise why waste resources? Can we dispose robots at our will when convenient? ….

Example of our responsibility for a robot: Example of our responsibility for a robot: The case of property ownership

• AAs may come to have interests which wemay be legally (and morally?) obliged torespect

• Andrew Martin – he is a robot in Bicentennial Man– Andre acquires (through courts) legal entitlement to

own property in his own ‘person’

Bicentennial ManBicentennial ManBicentennial Man

• Household android isacquired by Martin family– christened Andrew• His decorative products

– exquisitely crafted fromdriftwood –

become highly prizedcollectors' items

Bicentennial Man (cont)

• Andrew, arguably, has legalrights to his property;

• It would be morally wrong for us not torespect them (e.g. to steal from him)• His rights to maintain his property

– (and our obligation not infringe those rights)… does not depend on our attributingconsciousness to him …

Bicentennial Man (cont)

A case of robot moral(not just legal) rights?

• Andrew, arguably, has moralhas moral, not just legalrights to his property;

• Would it not be morally wrong for us notto respect his legal rights?

– (morally wrong, e.g., to steal from him?)

Bicentennial Man (cont)

Does it matter if he is non-conscious?

• Arguably, Andrew’s moral rights tomaintain his property

– (and our moral obligation to not infringe thoserights)

… do not depend on our attributingconsciousness to him …

Bicentennial Man (cont)

• On the legal status of artificial agents, see

– David Calverley, “Imagining a Non-Biological Machineas a Legal Person”,

• Submitted, Artificial Intelligence and Society

• For further related discussion of Asimov’sBicentennial Man, see

– Susan Leigh Anderson, “Asimov’s “Three Laws ofRobotics” and Machine Metaethics”

Bicentennial Man (cont)

Super-Super-Intelligent Intelligent Robots? Robots?

Can developing Can developing Super-Intelligent Super-Intelligent Robots affect the Robots affect the

whole human whole human civilization and civilization and

fate of the fate of the Universe ? Universe ?

Hugo De Garis

The question is not if we will design The question is not if we will design intelligent robots, the questions is if we intelligent robots, the questions is if we should design gods who will supersede should design gods who will supersede

our intelligence and consciousness.our intelligence and consciousness.

Artilects, Artilect wars?Artilects, Artilect wars?

TECHNOLOGY FORECASTING First order impacts: linear

extrapolation – faster, better, cheaper

Second and third order impacts: non-linear, more difficult to forecast

Analogy: The automobile in 1909 Faster, better, cheaper

than horse and buggy (but initially does not completely surpass previous technology)

Then industrial changes: rise of automotive industry, oil industry, road & bridge construction, etc.

Having no intelligence and consciousness, our life affected morally and intellectually by new technology development like cars or TV or computers.

Influence of cars on our lives! Then cars affected

social changes: clothing, rise of suburbs, family structure

(teenage drivers, dating),

increasing wealth and personal

mobility Then cars affected

geopolitical changes:

oil cartels, foreign policy, religious and tribal

conflict, wars, environmental

degradation and global warming

ConclusionsConclusions1. We need to distinguish between shallow and deep AC and AE

2. We need to distinguish techno-ethics from artificial ethics (especially strong AE)

3. There seems to be a link between an artificial agent’s status as a conscious being and its status as an ethical being

4. A strong view of AC says that genuine ethical status in artificial agents (both as ethical consumers and ethical producers) requires psychologically real consciousness in such agents.

Conclusions,continued

5. Questions can be raised about the strong view - (automated ethical advisors; property ownership)

6. There are many important ways in which a kind of (shallow) ethics has to be developed for present day and future non-conscious agents.

7. But in an ultimate, ‘deep’ sense, perhaps AC and AE go together closely

– (see paper ‘Ethics and Consciousness in Artificial Agents’ for defense of the strong view much more robustly, as the ‘organic’ view.)

Sources of slides

Robert FinkelsteinSteve Torrance, Middlesex University, UK

ラファエル・カプーロhttp://www.capurro.de/home-jp.html

Steinbeis Transfer Institut – Information Ethics (STI-IE)http://sti-ie.de

CybernicsUniversity of Tsukuba, Japan

http://www.cybernics.tsukuba.ac.jp/index.html

September 30, 2009

This is an expanded version of a talk given at aconference of the ETHICBOTS project inNaples, Oct 17-18, 2006.

See S. Torrance; ‘The Ethical Status of Artificial Agents – With andWithout Consciousness’ (extended abstract), in G. Tamburrin and E.Datteri (eds) Ethics of Human Interaction with Robotic, Bionic and AISystems: Concepts and Policies, Napoli: Istituto Italiano per gli StudiFilosofici, 2006.See also S. Torrance, ‘Ethics and Consciousness in ArtificialAgents’, submitted to Artificial Intelligence and Society