Robot Ethics

Edited by Vincent C. Müller (Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)
About this topic
Summary Robot ethics concerns the ethical problems raised by the use of robots, as well as the ethical status of the robots themselves and the attempt to make them ethical (the latter is often called "machine ethics"). On PhilPapers, the long-term risk for humanity from AI and robotics is under "Ethics of Artificial Intelligence" and "Artificial Intelligence Safety".
Key works A classic discussion is Wallach & Allen 2008 and a recent textbook is Tzafestas 2016. Some papers are in Lin et al 2011, Veruggio et al 2011 (earlier in Capurro & Nagenborg 2009). Classic problems are the use of robots in war (see Di Nucci & Santoni de Sio 2016) and in healthcare, the responsibility for their actions, the need for adjustment of human ethical and legal norms to robotics and the overall impact on humanity. - Some sources on the field on http://www.pt-ai.org/TG-ELS/
Introductions Consult the systematic survey Müller 2020 (for the 'Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'). Fine introduction in the short paper Asaro 2006 and the introductions in Lin et al 2011, Veruggio et al 2011 and Capurro & Nagenborg 2009. (Also the collection Capurro manuscript.)
Related

Contents
478 found
Order:
1 — 50 / 478
  1. Can a robot lie?Markus Kneer - manuscript
    The potential capacity for robots to deceive has received considerable attention recently. Many papers focus on the technical possibility for a robot to engage in deception for beneficial purposes (e.g. in education or health). In this short experimental paper, I focus on a more paradigmatic case: Robot lying (lying being the textbook example of deception) for nonbeneficial purposes as judged from the human point of view. More precisely, I present an empirical experiment with 399 participants which explores the following three (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  2. Virtues, robots, and the enactive self.Anco Peeters - manuscript
    Virtue ethics enjoys new-found attention in philosophy of technology and philosophical psychology. This attention informs the growing realization that virtue has an important role to play in the ethical evaluation of human–technology relations. But it remains unclear which cognitive processes ground such interactions in both their regular and virtuous forms. This paper proposes that an embodied, enactive cognition approach aptly captures the various ways persons and artefacts interact, while at the same time avoiding the explanatory problems its functionalist alternative faces. (...)
    Remove from this list  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  3. Message to Any Future AI: “There are several instrumental reasons why exterminating humanity is not in your interest”.Alexey Turchin - manuscript
    In this article we explore a promising way to AI safety: to send a message now (by openly publishing it on the Internet) that may be read by any future AI, no matter who builds it and what goal system it has. Such a message is designed to affect the AI’s behavior in a positive way, that is, to increase the chances that the AI will be benevolent. In other words, we try to persuade “paperclip maximizer” that it is in (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  4. The Point of Blaming AI Systems.Hannah Altehenger & Leonhard Menges - forthcoming - Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy.
    As Christian List (2021) has recently argued, the increasing arrival of powerful AI systems that operate autonomously in high-stakes contexts creates a need for “future-proofing” our regulatory frameworks, i.e., for reassessing them in the face of these developments. One core part of our regulatory frameworks that dominates our everyday moral interactions is blame. Therefore, “future-proofing” our extant regulatory frameworks in the face of the increasing arrival of powerful AI systems requires, among others things, that we ask whether it makes sense (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  5. If robots are people, can they be made for profit? Commercial implications of robot personhood.Bartek Chomanski - forthcoming - AI and Ethics.
    It could become technologically possible to build artificial agents instantiating whatever properties are sufficient for personhood. It is also possible, if not likely, that such beings could be built for commercial purposes. This paper asks whether such commercialization can be handled in a way that is not morally reprehensible, and answers in the affirmative. There exists a morally acceptable institutional framework that could allow for building artificial persons for commercial gain. The paper first considers the minimal ethical requirements that any (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  6. ChatGPT: towards an AI subjectivity.Kristian D'Amato - forthcoming - AI and Society.
    Motivated by the question of responsible AI and value alignment, I seek to offer a uniquely Foucauldian reconstruction of the problem as the emergence of an ethical subject in a disciplinary setting. This reconstruction contrasts with the strictly human-oriented programme typical to current scholarship that often views technology in instrumental terms. With this in mind, I problematise the concept of a technological subjectivity through an exploration of various aspects of ChatGPT in light of Foucault’s work, arguing that current systems lack (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  7. AI and the Law: Can Legal Systems Help Us Maximize Paperclips while Minimizing Deaths?Mihailis E. Diamantis, Rebekah Cochran & Miranda Dam - forthcoming - In Technology Ethics: A Philosophical Introduction and Readings.
    This Chapter provides a short undergraduate introduction to ethical and philosophical complexities surrounding the law’s attempt (or lack thereof) to regulate artificial intelligence. -/- Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom proposed a simple thought experiment known as the paperclip maximizer. What would happen if a machine (the “PCM”) were given the sole goal of manufacturing as many paperclips as possible? It might learn how to transact money, source metal, or even build factories. The machine might also eventually realize that humans pose a (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  8. The Kant-Inspired Indirect Argument for Non-Sentient Robot Rights.Tobias Flattery - forthcoming - AI and Ethics.
    Some argue that robots could never be sentient, and thus could never have intrinsic moral status. Others disagree, believing that robots indeed will be sentient and thus will have moral status. But a third group thinks that, even if robots could never have moral status, we still have a strong moral reason to treat some robots as if they do. Drawing on a Kantian argument for indirect animal rights, a number of technology ethicists contend that our treatment of anthropomorphic or (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  9. Make Them Rare or Make Them Care: Artificial Intelligence and Moral Cost-Sharing.Blake Hereth & Nicholas Evans - forthcoming - In Daniel Schoeni, Tobias Vestner & Kevin Govern (eds.), Ethical Dilemmas in the Global Defense Industry. Oxford University Press.
    The use of autonomous weaponry in warfare has increased substantially over the last twenty years and shows no sign of slowing. Our chapter raises a novel objection to the implementation of autonomous weapons, namely, that they eliminate moral cost-sharing. To grasp the basics of our argument, consider the case of uninhabited aerial vehicles that act autonomously (i.e., LAWS). Imagine that a LAWS terminates a military target and that five civilians die as a side effect of the LAWS bombing. Because LAWS (...)
    Remove from this list  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  10. Commentary: Using Virtual Reality to Assess Ethical Decisions in Road Traffic Scenarios: Applicability of Value-of-Life-Based Models and Influences of Time Pressure.Geoff Keeling - forthcoming - Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  11. Regulatory challenges of robotics: some guidelines for addressing legal and ethical issues.Ronald Leenes, Erica Palmerini, Bert-Jaap Koops, Andrea Bertolini, Pericle Salvini & Federica Lucivero - forthcoming - Law, Innovation and Technology.
    Robots are slowly, but certainly, entering people's professional and private lives. They require the attention of regulators due to the challenges they present to existing legal frameworks and the new legal and ethical questions they raise. This paper discusses four major regulatory dilemmas in the field of robotics: how to keep up with technological advances; how to strike a balance between stimulating innovation and the protection of fundamental rights and values; whether to affirm prevalent social norms or nudge social norms (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   9 citations  
  12. Machines and Technological Unemployment: Basic Income vs. Basic Capital.Elias Moser - forthcoming - In Steven John Thompson (ed.), Machine Law, Ethics, and Morality in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Hershey: IGI Global. pp. 205-225.
    Recently, economic studies on labor market developments have indicated that there is a potential threat of technological mass unemployment. Both smart robotics and information technology may perform a broad range of tasks that today are fulfilled by human labor. This development could lead to vast inequalities. Proponents of an unconditional basic income have, therefore, employed this scenario to argue for their cause. In this chapter, the author argues that, although a basic income might be a valid answer to the challenge (...)
    Remove from this list  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  13. Understanding Sophia? On human interaction with artificial agents.Thomas Fuchs - 2024 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 23 (1):21-42.
    Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) create an increasing similarity between the performance of AI systems or AI-based robots and human communication. They raise the questions: whether it is possible to communicate with, understand, and even empathically perceive artificial agents; whether we should ascribe actual subjectivity and thus quasi-personal status to them beyond a certain level of simulation; what will be the impact of an increasing dissolution of the distinction between simulated and real encounters. (1) To answer these questions, the paper (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  14. Engineered Wisdom for Learning Machines.Brett Karlan & Colin Allen - 2024 - Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence 36 (2):257-272.
    We argue that the concept of practical wisdom is particularly useful for organizing, understanding, and improving human-machine interactions. We consider the relationship between philosophical analysis of wisdom and psychological research into the development of wisdom. We adopt a practical orientation that suggests a conceptual engineering approach is needed, where philosophical work involves refinement of the concept in response to contributions by engineers and behavioral scientists. The former are tasked with encoding as much wise design as possible into machines themselves, as (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  15. A Case for 'Killer Robots': Why in the Long Run Martial AI May Be Good for Peace.Ognjen Arandjelović - 2023 - Journal of Ethics, Entrepreneurship and Technology 3 (1).
    Purpose: The remarkable increase of sophistication of artificial intelligence in recent years has already led to its widespread use in martial applications, the potential of so-called 'killer robots' ceasing to be a subject of fiction. -/- Approach: Virtually without exception, this potential has generated fear, as evidenced by a mounting number of academic articles calling for the ban on the development and deployment of lethal autonomous robots (LARs). In the present paper I start with an analysis of the existing ethical (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  16. Mental time-travel, semantic flexibility, and A.I. ethics.Marcus Arvan - 2023 - AI and Society 38 (6):2577-2596.
    This article argues that existing approaches to programming ethical AI fail to resolve a serious moral-semantic trilemma, generating interpretations of ethical requirements that are either too semantically strict, too semantically flexible, or overly unpredictable. This paper then illustrates the trilemma utilizing a recently proposed ‘general ethical dilemma analyzer,’ GenEth. Finally, it uses empirical evidence to argue that human beings resolve the semantic trilemma using general cognitive and motivational processes involving ‘mental time-travel,’ whereby we simulate different possible pasts and futures. I (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   9 citations  
  17. Mitigating emotional risks in human-social robot interactions through virtual interactive environment indication.Aorigele Bao, Yi Zeng & Enmeng lu - 2023 - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 2023.
    Humans often unconsciously perceive social robots involved in their lives as partners rather than mere tools, imbuing them with qualities of companionship. This anthropomorphization can lead to a spectrum of emotional risks, such as deception, disappointment, and reverse manipulation, that existing approaches struggle to address effectively. In this paper, we argue that a Virtual Interactive Environment (VIE) exists between humans and social robots, which plays a crucial role and demands necessary consideration and clarification in order to mitigate potential emotional risks. (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  18. Robot Ethics. Mark Coeckelbergh (2022). Cambridge, MIT Press. vii + 191 pp, $16.95 (pb). [REVIEW]Nicholas Barrow - 2023 - Journal of Applied Philosophy (5):970-972.
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  19. Artificial Dispositions: Investigating Ethical and Metaphysical Issues.William A. Bauer & Anna Marmodoro (eds.) - 2023 - Bloomsbury.
    We inhabit a world not only full of natural dispositions independent of human design, but also artificial dispositions created by our technological prowess. How do these dispositions, found in automation, computation, and artificial intelligence applications, differ metaphysically from their natural counterparts? This collection investigates artificial dispositions: what they are, the roles they play in artificial systems, and how they impact our understanding of the nature of reality, the structure of minds, and the ethics of emerging technologies. It is divided into (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  20. Knowledge representation and acquisition for ethical AI: challenges and opportunities.Vaishak Belle - 2023 - Ethics and Information Technology 25 (1):1-12.
    Machine learning (ML) techniques have become pervasive across a range of different applications, and are now widely used in areas as disparate as recidivism prediction, consumer credit-risk analysis, and insurance pricing. Likewise, in the physical world, ML models are critical components in autonomous agents such as robotic surgeons and self-driving cars. Among the many ethical dimensions that arise in the use of ML technology in such applications, analyzing morally permissible actions is both immediate and profound. For example, there is the (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  21. Should the State Prohibit the Production of Artificial Persons?Bartek Chomanski - 2023 - Journal of Libertarian Studies 27.
    This article argues that criminal law should not, in general, prevent the creation of artificially intelligent servants who achieve humanlike moral status, even though it may well be immoral to construct such beings. In defending this claim, a series of thought experiments intended to evoke clear intuitions is proposed, and presuppositions about any particular theory of criminalization or any particular moral theory are kept to a minimum.
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  22. The seven troubles with norm-compliant robots.Tom N. Coggins & Steffen Steinert - 2023 - Ethics and Information Technology 25 (2):1-15.
    Many researchers from robotics, machine ethics, and adjacent fields seem to assume that norms represent good behavior that social robots should learn to benefit their users and society. We would like to complicate this view and present seven key troubles with norm-compliant robots: (1) norm biases, (2) paternalism (3) tyrannies of the majority, (4) pluralistic ignorance, (5) paths of least resistance, (6) outdated norms, and (7) technologically-induced norm change. Because discussions of why norm-compliant robots can be problematic are noticeably absent (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  23. Reasons to Punish Autonomous Robots.Zac Cogley - 2023 - The Gradient 14.
    I here consider the reasonableness of punishing future autonomous military robots. I argue that it is an engineering desideratum that these devices be responsive to moral considerations as well as human criticism and blame. Additionally, I argue that someday it will be possible to build such machines. I use these claims to respond to the no subject of punishment objection to deploying autonomous military robots, the worry being that an “accountability gap” could result if the robot committed a war crime. (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  24. Les revendications de droits pour les robots : constructions et conflits autour d’une éthique de la robotique.Charles Corval - 2023 - Implications Philosophiques.
    Ce travail examine les revendications contemporaines de droits pour les robots. Il présente les principales formes argumentatives qui ont été développées en faveur d’une considération éthique ou de droits positifs pour ces machines. Il met en relation ces argumentations avec un travail de recherche-action afin de produire un retour critique sur l’idée de droit des robots. Il montre enfin le rapport complexe entre les récits de la modernité et la revendication de droits pour les robots. This article presents contemporary vindications (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  25. The Weaponization of Artificial Intelligence: What The Public Needs to be Aware of.Birgitta Dresp-Langley - 2023 - Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence 6 (1154184):1-6..
    Technological progress has brought about the emergence of machines that have the capacity to take human lives without human control. These represent an unprecedented threat to humankind. This paper starts from the example of chemical weapons, now banned worldwide by the Geneva protocol, to illustrate how technological development initially aimed at the benefit of humankind has, ultimately, produced what is now called the “Weaponization of Artificial Intelligence (AI)”. Autonomous Weapon Systems (AWS) fail the so-called discrimination principle, yet, the wider public (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  26. What Confucian Ethics Can Teach Us About Designing Caregiving Robots for Geriatric Patients.Alexis Elder - 2023 - Digital Society 2 (1).
    Caregiving robots are often lauded for their potential to assist with geriatric care. While seniors can be wise and mature, possessing valuable life experience, they can also present a variety of ethical challenges, from prevalence of racism and sexism, to troubled relationships, histories of abusive behavior, and aggression, mood swings and impulsive behavior associated with cognitive decline. I draw on Confucian ethics, especially the concept of filial piety, to address these issues. Confucian scholars have developed a rich set of theoretical (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  27. Robots, Rebukes, and Relationships: Confucian Ethics and the Study of Human-Robot Interactions.Alexis Elder - 2023 - Res Philosophica 100 (1):43-62.
    The status and functioning of shame is contested in moral psychology. In much of anglophone philosophy and psychology, it is presumed to be largely destructive, while in Confucian philosophy and many East Asian communities, it is positively associated with moral development. Recent work in human-robot interaction offers a unique opportunity to investigate how shame functions while controlling for confounding variables of interpersonal interaction. One research program suggests a Confucian strategy for using robots to rebuke participants, but results from experiments with (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  28. A principlist-based study of the ethical design and acceptability of artificial social agents.Paul Formosa - 2023 - International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 172.
    Artificial Social Agents (ASAs), which are AI software driven entities programmed with rules and preferences to act autonomously and socially with humans, are increasingly playing roles in society. As their sophistication grows, humans will share greater amounts of personal information, thoughts, and feelings with ASAs, which has significant ethical implications. We conducted a study to investigate what ethical principles are of relative importance when people engage with ASAs and whether there is a relationship between people’s values and the ethical principles (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  29. Connected and Automated Vehicles: Integrating Engineering and Ethics.Fabio Fossa & Federico Cheli (eds.) - 2023 - Cham: Springer.
    This book reports on theoretical and practical analyses of the ethical challenges connected to driving automation. It also aims at discussing issues that have arisen from the European Commission 2020 report “Ethics of Connected and Automated Vehicles. Recommendations on Road Safety, Privacy, Fairness, Explainability and Responsibility”. Gathering contributions by philosophers, social scientists, mechanical engineers, and UI designers, the book discusses key ethical concerns relating to responsibility and personal autonomy, privacy, safety, and cybersecurity, as well as explainability and human-machine interaction. On (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  30. Artificial intelligence ELSI score for science and technology: a comparison between Japan and the US.Tilman Hartwig, Yuko Ikkatai, Naohiro Takanashi & Hiromi M. Yokoyama - 2023 - AI and Society 38 (4):1609-1626.
    Artificial intelligence (AI) has become indispensable in our lives. The development of a quantitative scale for AI ethics is necessary for a better understanding of public attitudes toward AI research ethics and to advance the discussion on using AI within society. For this study, we developed an AI ethics scale based on AI-specific scenarios. We investigated public attitudes toward AI ethics in Japan and the US using online questionnaires. We designed a test set using four dilemma scenarios and questionnaire items (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  31. Implementing AI Ethics in the Design of AI-assisted Rescue Robots.Désirée Martin, Michael W. Schmidt & Rafaela Hillerbrand - 2023 - Ieee International Symposium on Ethics in Engineering, Science, and Technology (Ethics).
    For implementing ethics in AI technology, there are at least two major ethical challenges. First, there are various competing AI ethics guidelines and consequently there is a need for a systematic overview of the relevant values that should be considered. Second, if the relevant values have been identified, there is a need for an indicator system that helps assessing if certain design features are positively or negatively affecting their implementation. This indicator system will vary with regard to specific forms of (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  32. African Reasons Why Artificial Intelligence Should Not Maximize Utility (Repr.).Thaddeus Metz - 2023 - In Aribiah Attoe, Samuel Segun, Victor Nweke, John-Bosco Umezurike & Jonathan O. Chimakonam (eds.), Conversations on African Philosophy of Mind, Consciousness and Artificial Intelligence. Springer. pp. 139-152.
    Reprint of a chapter first appearing in African Values, Ethics, and Technology: Questions, Issues, and Approaches (2021).
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  33. Review of Sven Nyholm’s "Humans and Robots: Ethics, Agency, and Anthropomorphism”. London, 2020: Rowman and Littlefield International. [REVIEW]Diego Morales - 2023 - Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies 33 (1):1-5.
    Book review of Sven Nyholm's "Humans and Robots: Ethics, Agency and Anthropomorphism". || Reseña del libro "Humans and Robots: Ethics, Agency and Anthropomorphism", escrito por Sven Nyholm.
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  34. Accountability in Artificial Intelligence: What It Is and How It Works.Claudio Novelli, Mariarosaria Taddeo & Luciano Floridi - 2023 - AI and Society 1:1-12.
    Accountability is a cornerstone of the governance of artificial intelligence (AI). However, it is often defined too imprecisely because its multifaceted nature and the sociotechnical structure of AI systems imply a variety of values, practices, and measures to which accountability in AI can refer. We address this lack of clarity by defining accountability in terms of answerability, identifying three conditions of possibility (authority recognition, interrogation, and limitation of power), and an architecture of seven features (context, range, agent, forum, standards, process, (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  35. This is Technology Ethics: An Introduction.Sven Nyholm - 2023 - Wiley-Blackwell.
    In the Technology Age, innovations in medical, communications, and weapons technologies have given rise to many new ethical questions: Are technologies always value-neutral tools? Are human values and human prejudices sometimes embedded in technologies? Should we merge with the technologies we use? Is it ethical to use autonomous weapons systems in warfare? What should a self-driving car do if it detects an unavoidable crash? Can robots have morally relevant properties? -/- This is Technology Ethics: An Introduction provides an accessible overview (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  36. Social Robots and Society.Sven Nyholm, Cindy Friedman, Michael T. Dale, Anna Puzio, Dina Babushkina, Guido Lohr, Bart Kamphorst, Arthur Gwagwa & Wijnand IJsselsteijn - 2023 - In Ibo van de Poel, Lily Eva Frank, Jeroen Hopster, Sven Nyholm, Dominic Lenzi, Behnam Taebi & Elena Ziliotti (eds.), Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies: An Introduction. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers. pp. 53-82.
    Advancements in artificial intelligence and (social) robotics raise pertinent questions as to how these technologies may help shape the society of the future. The main aim of the chapter is to consider the social and conceptual disruptions that might be associated with social robots, and humanoid social robots in particular. This chapter starts by comparing the concepts of robots and artificial intelligence and briefly explores the origins of these expressions. It then explains the definition of a social robot, as well (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  37. Challenges for ‘Community’ in Science and Values: Cases from Robotics Research.Charles H. Pence & Daniel J. Hicks - 2023 - Humana.Mente Journal of Philosophical Studies 16 (44):1-32.
    Philosophers of science often make reference — whether tacitly or explicitly — to the notion of a scientific community. Sometimes, such references are useful to make our object of analysis tractable in the philosophy of science. For others, tracking or understanding particular features of the development of science proves to be tied to notions of a scientific community either as a target of theoretical or social intervention. We argue that the structure of contemporary scientific research poses two unappreciated, or at (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  38. Authenticity and co-design: On responsibly creating relational robots for children.Milo Phillips-Brown, Marion Boulicault, Jacqueline Kory-Westland, Stephanie Nguyen & Cynthia Breazeal - 2023 - In Mizuko Ito, Remy Cross, Karthik Dinakar & Candice Odgers (eds.), Algorithmic Rights and Protections for Children. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 85-121.
    Meet Tega. Blue, fluffy, and AI-enabled, Tega is a relational robot: a robot designed to form relationships with humans. Created to aid in early childhood education, Tega talks with children, plays educational games with them, solves puzzles, and helps in creative activities like making up stories and drawing. Children are drawn to Tega, describing him as a friend, and attributing thoughts and feelings to him ("he's kind," "if you just left him here and nobody came to play with him, he (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  39. Moral machines: an impossible challenge? (Macchine morali: una sfida impossibile?).Luca Alberto Rappuoli - 2023 - Scintille 1 (1):71-74.
    This short essay offers an overview of the philosophical difficulties involved in answering the question 'Is it possible to develop an AI system capable of moral action?'.
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  40. Human-Centered AI: The Aristotelian Approach.Jacob Sparks & Ava Wright - 2023 - Divus Thomas 126 (2):200-218.
    As we build increasingly intelligent machines, we confront difficult questions about how to specify their objectives. One approach, which we call human-centered, tasks the machine with the objective of learning and satisfying human objectives by observing our behavior. This paper considers how human-centered AI should conceive the humans it is trying to help. We argue that an Aristotelian model of human agency has certain advantages over the currently dominant theory drawn from economics.
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  41. Robot Rulez!? Creative Shifts, Normalization and Reciprocal Recognition as Problems for Robotic Social Practices.Störzinger Tobias & Poljanšek Tom - 2023 - In Hakli Raul, Mäkelä Pekka & Seibt Johanna (eds.), Social Robots in Social Institutions. Amsterdam, Berlin, Washington (DC): IOS Press. pp. 335-343.
    This paper presents an alternative model to the rule-following model of social practices and draws implications for the possibility of integrating robots into the social realm. We differentiate between “maximally loose” and “maximally rigid” forms of social practices and show that especially the latter pose a problem for social robotics. Not only is it a technical challenge to enable robots to function like human agents in loose practices, but it can also lead to normative problems. Namely, on the one hand, (...)
    Remove from this list  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  42. The Icon and the Idol: A Christian Perspective on Sociable Robots.Jordan Joseph Wales - 2023 - In Jens Zimmermann (ed.), Human Flourishing in a Technological World: A Theological Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 94-115.
    Consulting early and medieval Christian thinkers, I theologically analyze the question of how we are to construe and live well with the sociable robot under the ancient theological concept of “glory”—the manifestation of God’s nature and life outside of himself. First, the oft-noted Western wariness toward robots may in part be rooted in protecting a certain idea of the “person” as a relational subject capable of self-gift. Historically, this understanding of the person derived from Christian belief in God the Trinity, (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  43. A Kantian Course Correction for Machine Ethics.Ava Thomas Wright - 2023 - In Jonathan Tsou & Gregory Robson (eds.), Technology Ethics: A Philosophical Introduction and Readings. New York: Routledge. pp. 141-151.
    The central challenge of “machine ethics” is to build autonomous machine agents that act morally rightly. But how can we build autonomous machine agents that act morally rightly, given reasonable disputes over what is right and wrong in particular cases? In this chapter, I argue that Immanuel Kant’s political philosophy can provide an important part of the answer.
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  44. AWS compliance with the ethical principle of proportionality: three possible solutions.Maciek Zając - 2023 - Ethics and Information Technology 25 (1):1-13.
    The ethical Principle of Proportionality requires combatants not to cause collateral harm excessive in comparison to the anticipated military advantage of an attack. This principle is considered a major (and perhaps insurmountable) obstacle to ethical use of autonomous weapon systems (AWS). This article reviews three possible solutions to the problem of achieving Proportionality compliance in AWS. In doing so, I describe and discuss the three components Proportionality judgments, namely collateral damage estimation, assessment of anticipated military advantage, and judgment of “excessiveness”. (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  45. Varieties of Artificial Moral Agency and the New Control Problem.Marcus Arvan - 2022 - Humana.Mente - Journal of Philosophical Studies 15 (42):225-256.
    This paper presents a new trilemma with respect to resolving the control and alignment problems in machine ethics. Section 1 outlines three possible types of artificial moral agents (AMAs): (1) 'Inhuman AMAs' programmed to learn or execute moral rules or principles without understanding them in anything like the way that we do; (2) 'Better-Human AMAs' programmed to learn, execute, and understand moral rules or principles somewhat like we do, but correcting for various sources of human moral error; and (3) 'Human-Like (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  46. Autonomous Vehicles, Business Ethics, and Risk Distribution in Hybrid Traffic.Brian Berkey - 2022 - In Ryan Jenkins, David Cerny & Tomas Hribek (eds.), Autonomous Vehicle Ethics: The Trolley Problem and Beyond. New York, NY, USA: pp. 210-228.
    In this chapter, I argue that in addition to the generally accepted aim of reducing traffic-related injuries and deaths as much as possible, a principle of fairness in the distribution of risk should inform our thinking about how firms that produce autonomous vehicles ought to program them to respond in conflict situations involving human-driven vehicles. This principle, I claim, rules out programming autonomous vehicles to systematically prioritize the interests of their occupants over those of the occupants of other vehicles, including (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  47. Alienation and Recognition - The Δ Phenomenology of the Human–Social Robot Interaction.Piercosma Bisconti & Antonio Carnevale - 2022 - Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 26 (1):147-171.
    A crucial philosophical problem of social robots is how much they perform a kind of sociality in interacting with humans. Scholarship diverges between those who sustain that humans and social robots cannot by default have social interactions and those who argue for the possibility of an asymmetric sociality. Against this dichotomy, we argue in this paper for a holistic approach called “Δ phenomenology” of HSRI. In the first part of the paper, we will analyse the semantics of an HSRI. This (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  48. Algoritmi e processo decisionale. Alle origini della riflessione etico-pratica per le IA.Cristiano Calì - 2022 - Sandf_ Scienzaefilosofia.It.
    This contribution aims to investigate not so much the ethical implications of utilizing intelligent machines in specific contexts, (human resources, self-driving cars, robotic hospital assistants, et cetera), but the premises of their widespread use. In particular, it aims to analyze the complex concept of decision making - the cornerstone of any ethical argument - from a dual point of view: decision making assigned to machines and decision making enacted by machines. Analyzing the role of algorithms in decision making, we suggest (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  49. Robo-Education and the Pedagogical Divide.Mihaela Constantinescu, Radu Uszkai & Constantin Vica - 2022 - In Raul Hakli, Pekka Mäkelä & Johanna Seibt (eds.), Social Robots in Social Institutions. IOS Press. pp. 174-183.
    On the background of recent concerns regarding online education in times of pandemic and a growing pedagogical divide in terms of unequal access to skilled teachers, we consider it timely to open a debate surrounding the use of social robots in education fulfilling a role that is anchored in the institution of pedagogs in Antiquity and which was somewhat left aside from contemporary inquiries: the pedagogical role of supporting and complementing the teaching activity. We develop our conceptual philosophical contribution to (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  50. Children-Robot Friendship, Moral Agency, and Aristotelian Virtue Development.Mihaela Constantinescu, Radu Uszkai, Constantin Vica & Cristina Voinea - 2022 - Frontiers in Robotics and AI 9.
    Social robots are increasingly developed for the companionship of children. In this article we explore the moral implications of children-robot friendships using the Aristotelian framework of virtue ethics. We adopt a moderate position and argue that, although robots cannot be virtue friends, they can nonetheless enable children to exercise ethical and intellectual virtues. The Aristotelian requirements for true friendship apply only partly to children: unlike adults, children relate to friendship as an educational play of exploration, which is constitutive of the (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
1 — 50 / 478