Applying Ethics

Question 1

Connecting facts and value judgments

Answer 1

• Needs to provide a premise that bridges the two
• Naturalistic fallacy: if something is natural, it must be good

Question 2

Naturalistic fallacy: if something is natural, it must be good

Answer 2

• Moves from “is” to “ought” without justification

Question 3

Argument from analogy

Answer 3

• Draws a comparison between two situations or cases, and argues you should react to them in the same way
• Suggests consistency in moral judgments is important
• Helps to come up with answers to new ethical situations based on familiar ones
• Often relies on intuitions

Question 4

Casual claims and moral responsibility

Answer 4

• Important Tools for Applying Ethics often focuses on causal claims and moral responsibility

Question 5

Three Categories of Concerns

Answer 5

1, Ethical obligations of society as a whole that result from the creation of AI

2. Ethical obligations people have when they design and creating artificial intelligences
3. Ethical obligations people have to the artificial intelligences they design and create

Question 6

1, Ethical obligations of society as a whole that result from the creation of AI

Answer 6

• What should be done with what is produced and who should get the benefits and harms

Question 7

2. Ethical obligations people have when they design and creating artificial intelligences

Answer 7

• ensuring such machines don’t harm humans and other morally relevant beings

Question 8

3. Ethical obligations people have to the artificial intelligences they design and create

Answer 8

• determining the moral status of the machine themselves

Question 9

Domain Specific vs. AGI

Answer 9

• Domain Restricted AIs: the concern is mainly with safety
• AGIs: wider variety of moral concerns and ethical problems

Question 10

Domain Restricted AIs: the concern is mainly with safety

Answer 10

• They have one task, the idea is to do that task well
• The focus is mainly on the ethical obligations people have when they design and creating artificial intelligences

Question 11

AGIs: wider variety of moral concerns and ethical problems

Answer 11

• Often novel and qualitatively different, unpredictable and numerous
• They are like humans, and raise some of the same ethical concerns, but also completely unlike humans
• Raises questions about the ethical obligations people have directly to the artificial intelligences they design and create

Question 12

Concerns About Domain Specific AIs

Answer 12

1. Transparency
2. Predictability
3. Minimizing Manipulation
4. Moral Responsibility

Question 13

1. Transparency

Answer 13

• Example: a bank using a machine learning algorithm to recommend mortgage applications for approval, rejects most black applications

Question 14

2. Predictability

Answer 14

• Example: Analogy to stare decisis in legal decisions, following past precedent whenever possible

Question 15

3. Minimizing Manipulation

Answer 15

• Example: avoiding the ability to “fool” the AI and exploit weakness, such as to smuggle a bomb through airline luggage

Question 16

4. Moral Responsibility

Answer 16

• Who is to blame for accidents, failures to fulfill the purpose of the AI, etc., is difficult to determine

Question 17

Example: a bank using a machine learning algorithm to recommend mortgage applications for approval, rejects most black applications

Answer 17

• Depending on how transparent the method used to design the machine learning algorithm is, it will be more or less difficult to discover why this result has occurred

Question 18

Example: Analogy to stare decisis in legal decisions, following past precedent whenever possible

Answer 18

• When an AI takes on cognitive work with social dimensions, it inherits social requirements, such as needing to be predicable in order for individuals to optimize their lives within a context

Question 19

Artificial General Intelligence and the related challenges: Ethical Challenge 1

Answer 19

• How do address the potential safety and ethical problems that come from AGI

Question 20

Artificial General Intelligence: Solution 1

Answer 20

• Build general requirements and rules into the AI programming
• For example: good behaviour is X, such that the consequence of X is not harmful to humans

Question 21

Artificial General Intelligence: Objection

Answer 21

• This kind of rule only works if the AI explicitly identifies and understands the possible consequences of its behaviour, and does so in the way we expect it to
• Implicitly consequentialist

Question 22

Artificial General Intelligence: Ethical Challenge 2

Answer 22

Do AIs have moral status?

Question 23

Do AIs have moral status?

Answer 23

• It depends on what capacity we are using as the requirement for moral status

Question 24

• It depends on what capacity we are using as the requirement for moral status

Answer 24

a) Rationality (sapience)

b) Ability to feel pleasure and pain (sentience)

c) Ability to achieve virtue and flourishing

d) Ability to build relationships and feel emotions

Question 25

How Utilitarianism, Kantianism, Virtue Ethics, and Care ethics could apply to AI: Kantianism

Answer 25

• Kantianism argues that moral status is based in having the ability to reason.

Question 26

How Utilitarianism, Kantianism, Virtue Ethics, and Care ethics could apply to AI: Utilitarianism

Answer 26

Utilitarianism argues that moral status is based in having the ability to feel pleasure and pain.

Question 27

How Utilitarianism, Kantianism, Virtue Ethics, and Care ethics could apply to AI: Virtue Ethics

Answer 27

Virtue Ethics argues that moral status is based on the ability to flourish (achieve eudaimonia).

Question 28

How Utilitarianism, Kantianism, Virtue Ethics, and Care ethics could apply to AI: Care Ethics

Answer 28

Care Ethics argues that moral status is based (at least partially) in the ability to have emotions and develop relationships.