Machine Ethics

In this part, four visions of the future of machine ethics are presented. Helen Seville and Debora G. Field, in “What Can AI Do for Ethics?” maintain that AI is “ideally suited to exploring the processes of ethical reasoning and decision-making,” and that, through the World Wide Web, an Ethical Decision Assistant (EDA) can be created that is accessible to all. Seville and Field believe that an acceptable EDA for personal ethical decision making should incorporate certain elements, including the ability to (1) point out the consequences, short and long term, not only of the actions we consider performing, but also of not performing certain actions; (2) use virtual reality techniques to enable us to “experience” the consequences of taking certain courses of action/inaction, making it less likely that we will err because of weakness of will; and (3) emphasize the importance of consistency. They argue, however, that there are limits to the assistance that a computer could give us in ethical decision making. In ethical dilemmas faced by individuals, personal values will, and should, in their view, have a role to play.

Seville and Field, interestingly, believe that AI could create a system that, in principle, would make better decisions concerning ethically acceptable social policies because of its ability to check for consistency and its ability to be more impartial (understood as being able to represent and consider the experiences of all those affected) than human beings.