Should robotic scholars of the future come to write books about the early history of the ethical ... more Should robotic scholars of the future come to write books about the early history of the ethical systems implemented in their cognition, Programming Machine Ethics will feature prominently. The first generation of machine ethicists landed on the beach of the Robotic New World, viewed the lay of the land and debated how to hack a path through the mountainous jungle of the interior. Many flowers bloomed. Many withered. This book picks up a machete and blazes a trail into the interior that cuts deeper and broader than any other book yet on the market. By machine ethics is meant the specific technical endeavour of programming ethics into machines (such as robots). This relates to but is distinct from broader ethical debates relating robots and automata such as whether or not ‘‘killer robots’’ should be banned and how society will cope with ubiquitous automation. This book is mostly about programming normative rules into robots and machines rather than deciding what those normative rules should be and what normative rules should or should not be programmed into robots. However, in the closing chapters the authors offer some tantalizing glimpses as to how normative rules evolve in groups of intelligent agents seeking to maximize their survival through cooperation, the behaviours such agents exhibit (guilt, regret, apology, forgiveness), and how such evolution might be formalized. Whether the pioneering trail the authors blaze becomes the main highway of machine ethics remains to be seen. The book is strongly committed to functionalism in the philosophy of mind, contractualism in ethics and XSB Prolog as its preferred programming language. All these commitments can be challenged. Functionalism may not be an entirely satisfactory account of mind. Contractualism may not be an entirely satisfactory moral theory. XSB may not be the best dialect of Prolog. Prolog may not be the best logic programming language. Logic
An Introduction to Ethics in Robotics and AI, 2020
This chapter discusses the general risks that businesses face before considering specific ethical... more This chapter discusses the general risks that businesses face before considering specific ethical risks that companies developing AI systems and robots need to consider. Guidance on how to manage these risks is provided. It is argued that companies should do what is ethically desirable not just the minimum that is legally necessary. Evidence is given that this can be more profitable in the long run.
Should robotic scholars of the future come to write books about the early history of the ethical ... more Should robotic scholars of the future come to write books about the early history of the ethical systems implemented in their cognition, Programming Machine Ethics will feature prominently. The first generation of machine ethicists landed on the beach of the Robotic New World, viewed the lay of the land and debated how to hack a path through the mountainous jungle of the interior. Many flowers bloomed. Many withered. This book picks up a machete and blazes a trail into the interior that cuts deeper and broader than any other book yet on the market. By machine ethics is meant the specific technical endeavour of programming ethics into machines (such as robots). This relates to but is distinct from broader ethical debates relating robots and automata such as whether or not ‘‘killer robots’’ should be banned and how society will cope with ubiquitous automation. This book is mostly about programming normative rules into robots and machines rather than deciding what those normative rules should be and what normative rules should or should not be programmed into robots. However, in the closing chapters the authors offer some tantalizing glimpses as to how normative rules evolve in groups of intelligent agents seeking to maximize their survival through cooperation, the behaviours such agents exhibit (guilt, regret, apology, forgiveness), and how such evolution might be formalized. Whether the pioneering trail the authors blaze becomes the main highway of machine ethics remains to be seen. The book is strongly committed to functionalism in the philosophy of mind, contractualism in ethics and XSB Prolog as its preferred programming language. All these commitments can be challenged. Functionalism may not be an entirely satisfactory account of mind. Contractualism may not be an entirely satisfactory moral theory. XSB may not be the best dialect of Prolog. Prolog may not be the best logic programming language. Logic
An Introduction to Ethics in Robotics and AI, 2020
This chapter discusses the general risks that businesses face before considering specific ethical... more This chapter discusses the general risks that businesses face before considering specific ethical risks that companies developing AI systems and robots need to consider. Guidance on how to manage these risks is provided. It is argued that companies should do what is ethically desirable not just the minimum that is legally necessary. Evidence is given that this can be more profitable in the long run.
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