scholarly journals Moral Permissibility of Action Plans

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 7635-7642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Lindner ◽  
Robert Mattmüller ◽  
Bernhard Nebel
Keyword(s):  
Computational Complexity ◽  
Ethical Judgment ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
Machine Ethics ◽  
Action Plans ◽  
Planning Systems ◽  
Optimal Plan ◽  
Moral Permissibility ◽  
Automatic Planning

Research in classical planning so far was mainly concerned with generating a satisficing or an optimal plan. However, if such systems are used to make decisions that are relevant to humans, one should also consider the ethical consequences generated plans can have. We address this challenge by analyzing in how far it is possible to generalize existing approaches of machine ethics to automatic planning systems. Traditionally, ethical principles are formulated in an actionbased manner, allowing to judge the execution of one action. We show how such a judgment can be generalized to plans. Further, we study the computational complexity of making ethical judgment about plans.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethics

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keng Siau ◽  
Weiyu Wang
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Data Privacy ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
Machine Ethics ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Ai Ethics ◽  
Self Driving Cars

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology has achieved many great things, such as facial recognition, medical diagnosis, and self-driving cars. AI promises enormous benefits for economic growth, social development, as well as human well-being and safety improvement. However, the low-level of explainability, data biases, data security, data privacy, and ethical problems of AI-based technology pose significant risks for users, developers, humanity, and societies. As AI advances, one critical issue is how to address the ethical and moral challenges associated with AI. Even though the concept of “machine ethics” was proposed around 2006, AI ethics is still in the infancy stage. AI ethics is the field related to the study of ethical issues in AI. To address AI ethics, one needs to consider the ethics of AI and how to build ethical AI. Ethics of AI studies the ethical principles, rules, guidelines, policies, and regulations that are related to AI. Ethical AI is an AI that performs and behaves ethically. One must recognize and understand the potential ethical and moral issues that may be caused by AI to formulate the necessary ethical principles, rules, guidelines, policies, and regulations for AI (i.e., Ethics of AI). With the appropriate ethics of AI, one can then build AI that exhibits ethical behavior (i.e., Ethical AI). This paper will discuss AI ethics by looking at the ethics of AI and ethical AI. What are the perceived ethical and moral issues with AI? What are the general and common ethical principles, rules, guidelines, policies, and regulations that can resolve or at least attenuate these ethical and moral issues with AI? What are some of the necessary features and characteristics of an ethical AI? How to adhere to the ethics of AI to build ethical AI?

Rule based fuzzy cognitive maps and natural language processing in machine ethics

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rollin M. Omari ◽  
Masoud Mohammadian
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Decision Procedure ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Maps ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
Machine Ethics ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The developing academic field of machine ethics seeks to make artificial agents safer as they become more pervasive throughout society. In contrast to computer ethics, machine ethics is concerned with the behavior of machines toward human users and other machines. This study aims to use an action-based ethical theory founded on the combinational aspects of deontological and teleological theories of ethics in the construction of an artificial moral agent (AMA). Design/methodology/approach The decision results derived by the AMA are acquired via fuzzy logic interpretation of the relative values of the steady-state simulations of the corresponding rule-based fuzzy cognitive map (RBFCM). Findings Through the use of RBFCMs, the following paper illustrates the possibility of incorporating ethical components into machines, where latent semantic analysis (LSA) and RBFCMs can be used to model dynamic and complex situations, and to provide abilities in acquiring causal knowledge. Research limitations/implications This approach is especially appropriate for data-poor and uncertain situations common in ethics. Nonetheless, to ensure that a machine with an ethical component can function autonomously in the world, research in artificial intelligence will need to further investigate the representation and determination of ethical principles, the incorporation of these ethical principles into a system’s decision procedure, ethical decision-making with incomplete and uncertain knowledge, the explanation for decisions made using ethical principles and the evaluation of systems that act based upon ethical principles. Practical implications To date, the conducted research has contributed to a theoretical foundation for machine ethics through exploration of the rationale and the feasibility of adding an ethical dimension to machines. Further, the constructed AMA illustrates the possibility of utilizing an action-based ethical theory that provides guidance in ethical decision-making according to the precepts of its respective duties. The use of LSA illustrates their powerful capabilities in understanding text and their potential application as information retrieval systems in AMAs. The use of cognitive maps provides an approach and a decision procedure for resolving conflicts between different duties. Originality/value This paper suggests that cognitive maps could be used in AMAs as tools for meta-analysis, where comparisons regarding multiple ethical principles and duties can be examined and considered. With cognitive mapping, complex and abstract variables that cannot easily be measured but are important to decision-making can be modeled. This approach is especially appropriate for data-poor and uncertain situations common in ethics.

Bridging Two Realms of Machine Ethics

2015 ◽  
pp. 197-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luís Moniz Pereira ◽  
Ari Saptawijaya
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Game Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Game ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Dual Process ◽  
Machine Ethics ◽  
Computational Techniques ◽  
Moral Permissibility ◽  
Cognitive Capability ◽  
Emergence Of Cooperation ◽  
The Individual

We address problems in machine ethics dealt with using computational techniques. Our research has focused on Computational Logic, particularly Logic Programming, and its appropriateness to model morality, namely moral permissibility, its justification, and the dual-process of moral judgments regarding the realm of the individual. In the collective realm, we, using Evolutionary Game Theory in populations of individuals, have studied norms and morality emergence computationally. These, to start with, are not equipped with much cognitive capability, and simply act from a predetermined set of actions. Our research shows that the introduction of cognitive capabilities, such as intention recognition, commitment, and apology, separately and jointly, reinforce the emergence of cooperation in populations, comparatively to their absence. Bridging such capabilities between the two realms helps understand the emergent ethical behavior of agents in groups, and implements them not just in simulations, but in the world of future robots and their swarms. Evolutionary Anthropology provides teachings.

scholarly journals A Survey on Hierarchical Planning – One Abstract Idea, Many Concrete Realizations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Bercher ◽  
Ron Alford ◽  
Daniel Höller
Keyword(s):  
Computational Complexity ◽  
Hierarchical Planning ◽  
Planning Systems ◽  
Theoretical Investigations

Hierarchical planning has attracted renewed interest in the last couple of years, which led to numerous novel formalisms, problem classes, and theoretical investigations. Yet it is important to differentiate between the various formalisms and problem classes, since they show -- sometimes fundamental -- differences with regard to their expressivity and computational complexity: Some of them can be regarded equivalent to non-hierarchical formalisms while others are clearly more expressive. We survey the most important hierarchical problem classes and explain their differences and similarities. We furthermore give pointers to some of the best-known planning systems capable of solving the respective problem classes.

Universalism in ethics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onora O'Neill
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Ethical Judgment ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Universal Principle ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
Many Sources

The claim that ethical standards or principles are universal is an ancient commonplace of many ethical traditions and of contemporary political life, particularly in appeals to universal human rights. Yet it remains controversial. There are many sources of controversy. Universalism in ethics may be identified with claims about the form, scope or content of ethical principles, or with the very idea that ethical judgment appeals to principles, rather than to particular cases. Or it may be identified with various claims to identify a single fundamental universal principle, from which all other ethical principles and judgments derive. These disagreements can be clarified, and perhaps in part resolved, by distinguishing a number of different conceptions of universalism in ethics.

Evaluation of the moral permissibility of action plans

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 ◽  
pp. 103350
Author(s):  
Felix Lindner ◽  
Robert Mattmüller ◽  
Bernhard Nebel
Keyword(s):  
Action Plans ◽  
Moral Permissibility
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