research-article

An Approach to Computing Ethics

Authors:

Michael Anderson,

Susan Leigh Anderson,

Chris ArmenAuthors Info & Claims

IEEE Intelligent Systems, Volume 21, Issue 4

Pages 56 - 63

https://doi.org/10.1109/MIS.2006.64

Published: 01 July 2006 Publication History

Publisher Site

Abstract

To make ethics computable, we've adopted an approach to ethics that involves considering multipleprima facie duties in deciding how one should act in an ethical dilemma. We believe this approach is morelikely to capture the complexities of ethical decision making than a single, absolute-duty ethical theory.However, it requires a decision procedure for determining the ethically correct action when the duties giveconflicting advice. To solve this problem, we employ inductive-logic programming to enable a machine toabstract information from ethical experts' intuitions about particular ethical dilemmas, to create adecision principle. We've tested our method in the MedEthEx proof-of-concept system, using a type ofethical dilemma that involves 18 possible combinations of three prima facie duties. The system needed justfour training cases to create an ethically significant decision principle that covered the remaining cases. This article is part of a special issue on Machine Ethics.

References

[1]

S. Anderson, "We Are Our Values," Questioning Matters, D. Kolak, ed., Mayfield, 1999, p. 599.

Google Scholar

[2]

M. Anderson, S. Anderson, and C. Armen, "Toward Machine Ethics: Implementing Two Action-Based Ethical Theories," Proc. AAAI 2005 Fall Symp. Machine Ethics, AAAI Press, 2005, pp. 1–16.

Google Scholar

[3]

J. Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles and Morals of Legislation, Oxford Univ. Press, 1799.

Google Scholar

[4]

M. Anderson, S. Anderson, and C. Armen, "MedEthEx: Toward a Medical Ethics Advisor," Proc. AAAI 2005 Fall Symp. Caring Machines: AI in Eldercare, AAAI Press, 2005, pp. 9–16.

Google Scholar

[5]

J.S. Mill, "Utilitarianism," Utilitarianism and Other Writings, M. Warnock, ed., New American Library, 1974, chapter 5.

Google Scholar

[6]

W.D. Ross, The Right and the Good, Clarendon Press, 1930.

Google Scholar

[7]

J. Rawls, "Outline for a Decision Procedure for Ethics," Philosophical Rev., vol. 60, 1951.

Google Scholar

[8]

N. Lavrac and S. Dzeroski, Inductive Logic Programming: Techniques and Applications, Ellis Harwood, 1997.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[9]

T.L. Beauchamp and J.F. Childress, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, Oxford Univ. Press, 1979.

Google Scholar

[10]

T.A. Mappes and D. DeGrazia, Biomedical Ethics, 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2001, pp. 39–42.

Google Scholar

[11]

A.E. Buchanan and D.W. Brock, Deciding for Others: The Ethics of Surrogate Decision Making, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989, pp. 48–57.

Google Scholar

Cited By

View all

Speith TDastani MSichman JAlechina NDignum V(2024)Unlocking the Potential of Machine Ethics with ExplainabilityProceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems10.5555/3635637.3663199(2477-2479)Online publication date: 6-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3635637.3663199
Hein AMeier LBuyx ADiepold K(2022)A Fuzzy-Cognitive-Maps Approach to Decision-Making in Medical Ethics2022 IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE)10.1109/FUZZ-IEEE55066.2022.9882615(1-8)Online publication date: 18-Jul-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/FUZZ-IEEE55066.2022.9882615
Zoshak JDew KKitamura YQuigley AIsbister KIgarashi TBjørn PDrucker S(2021)Beyond Kant and Bentham: How Ethical Theories are being used in Artificial Moral AgentsProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445102(1-15)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445102
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

An Approach to Computing Ethics
1. Computing methodologies
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing profession
      1. Codes of ethics

Recommendations

Why Machine Ethics?

Machine ethics, machine morality, artificial morality, and computational ethics are all terms for an emerging field of study that seeks to implement moral decision-making faculties in computers and robots. Machine ethics is not merely science fiction ...
From machine ethics to computational ethics
Abstract
Research into the ethics of artificial intelligence is often categorized into two subareas—robot ethics and machine ethics. Many of the definitions and classifications of the subject matter of these subfields, as found in the literature, are ...
Guest Editors' Introduction: Machine Ethics

Machine ethics is concerned with how machines behave toward human users and other machines. It aims to create a machine that's guided by an acceptable ethical principle or set of principles in the decisions it makes about possible courses of action it ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

IEEE Intelligent Systems Volume 21, Issue 4

July 2006

86 pages

ISSN:1541-1672

Issue’s Table of Contents

Publisher

IEEE Educational Activities Department

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 July 2006

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

20
Total Citations
View Citations
0
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)0
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0

Reflects downloads up to 14 Oct 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all

Speith TDastani MSichman JAlechina NDignum V(2024)Unlocking the Potential of Machine Ethics with ExplainabilityProceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems10.5555/3635637.3663199(2477-2479)Online publication date: 6-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3635637.3663199
Hein AMeier LBuyx ADiepold K(2022)A Fuzzy-Cognitive-Maps Approach to Decision-Making in Medical Ethics2022 IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE)10.1109/FUZZ-IEEE55066.2022.9882615(1-8)Online publication date: 18-Jul-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/FUZZ-IEEE55066.2022.9882615
Zoshak JDew KKitamura YQuigley AIsbister KIgarashi TBjørn PDrucker S(2021)Beyond Kant and Bentham: How Ethical Theories are being used in Artificial Moral AgentsProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445102(1-15)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445102
Segun S(2020)From machine ethics to computational ethicsAI & Society10.1007/s00146-020-01010-136:1(263-276)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s00146-020-01010-1
Langley P(2019)Explainable, normative, and justified agencyProceedings of the Thirty-Third AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Thirty-First Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence Conference and Ninth AAAI Symposium on Educational Advances in Artificial Intelligence10.1609/aaai.v33i01.33019775(9775-9779)Online publication date: 27-Jan-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1609/aaai.v33i01.33019775
Sholla SMir RChishti M(2018)Eventuality of an Apartheid State of ThingsInternational Journal of Technoethics10.4018/IJT.20180701069:2(62-76)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.4018/IJT.2018070106
Hooker JKim TFurman JMarchant GPrice HRossi F(2018)Toward Non-Intuition-Based Machine and Artificial Intelligence EthicsProceedings of the 2018 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society10.1145/3278721.3278753(130-136)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3278721.3278753
Kuipers B(2018)How can we trust a robot?Communications of the ACM10.1145/317308761:3(86-95)Online publication date: 21-Feb-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3173087
Vamplew PDazeley RFoale CFirmin SMummery J(2018)Human-aligned artificial intelligence is a multiobjective problemEthics and Information Technology10.1007/s10676-017-9440-620:1(27-40)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10676-017-9440-6
Yilmaz L(2017)Verification and validation of ethical decision-making in autonomous systemsProceedings of the Symposium on Modeling and Simulation of Complexity in Intelligent, Adaptive and Autonomous Systems10.5555/3108414.3108415(1-12)Online publication date: 23-Apr-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3108414.3108415
Show More Cited By

Abstract

References

Cited By

Index Terms

Recommendations

Why Machine Ethics?

From machine ethics to computational ethics

Guest Editors' Introduction: Machine Ethics

Comments

Information

Published In

Publisher

Publication History

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View options

Figures

Other

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media

Affiliations