The Morality Menu Project

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Bendel
Keyword(s):  
Machine Ethics ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Moral Machines ◽  
Artificial Morality

The discipline of machine ethics examines, designs, and produces moral machines. The artificial morality is usually pre-programmed by a manufacturer or developer. However, another approach is the more flexible morality menu (MOME). With this, owners or users replicate their own moral preferences onto a machine. A team at the FHNW implemented a MOME for MOBO (a chatbot) in 2019/2020. In this article, the author introduces the idea of the MOME, presents the MOBO-MOME project, and discusses advantages and disadvantages of such an approach. It turns out that a morality menu could be a valuable extension for certain moral machines.

scholarly journals Towards animal-friendly machines

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 204-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Bendel
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
Machine Ethics ◽  
Animal Suffering ◽  
Design Studies ◽  
Risks And Benefits ◽  
Relative Risks ◽  
Moral Machines ◽  
Autonomous Machines ◽  
Important Basis

Abstract Semi-autonomous machines, autonomous machines and robots inhabit closed, semi-closed and open environments. There they encounter domestic animals, farm animals, working animals and/or wild animals. These animals could be disturbed, displaced, injured or killed. Within the context of machine ethics, the School of Business FHNW developed several design studies and prototypes for animal-friendly machines,which can be understood as moral machines in the spirit of this discipline. They were each linked with an annotated decision tree containing the ethical assumptions or justifications for interactions with animals. Annotated decision trees are seen as an important basis in developing moral machines. They are not without problems and contradictions, but they do guarantee well-founded, secure actions that are repeated at a certain level. This article documents completed and current projects, compares their relative risks and benefits, and makes proposals for future developments in machine ethics. The findings in this article and proposals for the future hope to systemically promote animal well-being and prevent animal suffering in encounters between machines and animals.

scholarly journals The Thorny Challenge of Making Moral Machines: Ethical Dilemmas with Self-Driving Cars

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-47
Author(s):  
Edmond Awad ◽  
Jean-François Bonnefon ◽  
Azim Shariff ◽  
Iyad Rahwan
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Machine Ethics ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Broad Agreement ◽  
Moral Machines ◽  
Autonomous Cars ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Study ◽  
Monitoring And Enforcement ◽  
Self Driving Cars

AbstractThe algorithms that control AVs will need to embed moral principles guiding their decisions in situations of unavoidable harm. Manufacturers and regulators are confronted with three potentially incompatible objectives: being consistent, not causing public outrage, and not discouraging buyers. The presented moral machine study is a step towards solving this problem as it tries to learn how people all over the world feel about the alternative decisions the AI of self-driving vehicles might have to make. The global study displayed broad agreement across regions regarding how to handle unavoidable accidents. To master the moral challenges, all stakeholders should embrace the topic of machine ethics: this is a unique opportunity to decide as a community what we believe to be right or wrong, and to make sure that machines, unlike humans, unerringly follow the agreed-upon moral preferences. The integration of autonomous cars will require a new social contract that provides clear guidelines about who is responsible for different kinds of accidents, how monitoring and enforcement will be performed, and how trust among all stakeholders can be engendered.

The Bright Line of Ethical Agency

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-257
Author(s):  
Stevens F. Wandmacher ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Positive Case ◽  
Machine Ethics ◽  
Second Line ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
First Line ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Bright Line ◽  
Moral Machines ◽  
Ethical Agency ◽  
Full Ethical Agents

In his article The Nature, Importance, and Difficulty of Machine Ethics, James H. Moor distinguishes two lines of argument for those who wish to draw a “bright line” between full ethical agents, such as human beings, and “weaker” ethical agents, such as machines whose actions have significant moral ramifications. The first line of argument is that only full ethical agents are agents at all. The second is that no machine could have the presumed features necessary for ethical agency. This paper shows why Moor is mistaken in his refutation of the first line of argument; it also makes a positive case that “weaker” ethical agents are not agents at all. This positive case, however, allows Moor’s rejection of the second line of argument to stand: allowing that there could be moral machines, but that these machines would have to be full moral agents and not merely something that models moral behavior or can be used in morally charged ways.

scholarly journals Towards Moral Machines: A Discussion with Michael Anderson and Susan Leigh Anderson

Conatus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 177
Author(s):  
Michael Anderson ◽  
Susan Leigh Anderson ◽  
Alkis Gounaris ◽  
George Kosteletos
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Ethical Behavior ◽  
Autonomous Agents ◽  
Machine Ethics ◽  
Civic Life ◽  
Moral Machines ◽  
Ethics Research ◽  
Near Future ◽  
And Robotics

At the turn of the 21st century, Susan Leigh Anderson and Michael Anderson conceived and introduced the Machine Ethics research program, that aimed to highlight the requirements under which autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) systems could demonstrate ethical behavior guided by moral values, and at the same time to show that these values, as well as ethics in general, can be representable and computable. Today, the interaction between humans and AI entities is already part of our everyday lives; in the near future it is expected to play a key role in scientific research, medical practice, public administration, education and other fields of civic life. In view of this, the debate over the ethical behavior of machines is more crucial than ever and the search for answers, directions and regulations is imperative at an academic, institutional as well as at a technical level. Our discussion with the two inspirers and originators of Machine Ethics highlights the epistemological, metaphysical and ethical questions arising by this project, as well as the realistic and pragmatic demands that dominate artificial intelligence and robotics research programs. Most of all, however, it sheds light upon the contribution of Susan and Michael Anderson regarding the introduction and undertaking of a main objective related to the creation of ethical autonomous agents, that will not be based on the “imperfect” patterns of human behavior, or on preloaded hierarchical laws and human-centric values.

Perspectives on Ethics of AI

2020 ◽  
pp. 537-553
Author(s):  
David J. Gunkel
Keyword(s):  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Moral Standing ◽  
Machine Ethics ◽  
Social Actor ◽  
Moral Machines ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The Status ◽  
Ai Ethics

This chapter investigates the philosophical aspects of AI and ethics. As the world today becomes increasingly populated by intelligent, socially interactive artefacts—devices that are not just instruments of human action but designed to be a kind of social actor in their own right—people will need to grapple with challenging questions concerning the status and moral standing of these machinic others. In formulating responses to these questions, one can obviously deploy the standard properties approach. This method has considerable historical precedent behind it and constitutes what can be called the default setting for addressing questions concerning moral standing. Indeed, a good deal of the current work in moral machines, machine ethics, AI ethics, and the ethics of AI follow this procedure. However, this approach, for all its advantages, also has considerable difficulties. The chapter therefore proposes an alternative approach to addressing AI ethics and the ethics of AI that circumvents many of the problems encountered in the properties approach by arranging for an ethics that is relational, radically empirical, and altruistic. This other way of thinking is informed by and follows from recent innovations in moral philosophy.

Moral Machines: Using Natural Morality to Guide Artificial Morality

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra E. Kornienko
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Lives ◽  
Moral Machines ◽  
Autonomous Machines ◽  
Artificial Morality

Increasingly autonomous machines are entering our everyday lives and it is important that they do not make it worse. Apart from safety, the development of artificial morality is extensively occupying philosophers and engineers. Importantly, the only kind of morality we have known is our own. In this paper, I overview the biological and evolutionary basis of human morality and the main approaches to artificial morality. I then discuss important aspects of natural morality that should be of crucial consideration for the field of artificial morality if we want to make future human-robot societies sustainable and flourishing.

scholarly journals Perspectives about artificial moral agents

AI and Ethics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreia Martinho ◽  
Adam Poulsen ◽  
Maarten Kroesen ◽  
Caspar Chorus
Keyword(s):  
Moral Agency ◽  
Q Methodology ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Machine Ethics ◽  
Future Projections ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Human Exceptionalism ◽  
Potential Source ◽  
Ai Ethics ◽  
Artificial Morality

AbstractThe pursuit of AMAs is complicated. Disputes about the development, design, moral agency, and future projections for these systems have been reported in the literature. This empirical study explores these controversial matters by surveying (AI) Ethics scholars with the aim of establishing a more coherent and informed debate. Using Q-methodology, we show the wide breadth of viewpoints and approaches to artificial morality. Five main perspectives about AMAs emerged from our data and were subsequently interpreted and discussed: (i) Machine Ethics: The Way Forward; (ii) Ethical Verification: Safe and Sufficient; (iii) Morally Uncertain Machines: Human Values to Avoid Moral Dystopia; (iv) Human Exceptionalism: Machines Cannot Moralize; and (v) Machine Objectivism: Machines as Superior Moral Agents. A potential source of these differing perspectives is the failure of Machine Ethics to be widely observed or explored as an applied ethic and more than a futuristic end. Our study helps improve the foundations for an informed debate about AMAs, where contrasting views and agreements are disclosed and appreciated. Such debate is crucial to realize an interdisciplinary approach to artificial morality, which allows us to gain insights into morality while also engaging practitioners.

Cryogenic atomic force microscopy

1991 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 54-55
Author(s):  
K. A. Fisher ◽  
M. G. L. Gustafsson ◽  
M. B. Shattuck ◽  
J. Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Room Temperature ◽  
Rapid Freezing ◽  
Cryogenic Temperatures ◽  
Soft Or ◽  
Electrically Conductive ◽  
Force Microscopy ◽  
Flexible Molecules ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Atomic Force ◽  
Chemical Perturbation

The atomic force microscope (AFM) is capable of imaging electrically conductive and non-conductive surfaces at atomic resolution. When used to image biological samples, however, lateral resolution is often limited to nanometer levels, due primarily to AFM tip/sample interactions. Several approaches to immobilize and stabilize soft or flexible molecules for AFM have been examined, notably, tethering coating, and freezing. Although each approach has its advantages and disadvantages, rapid freezing techniques have the special advantage of avoiding chemical perturbation, and minimizing physical disruption of the sample. Scanning with an AFM at cryogenic temperatures has the potential to image frozen biomolecules at high resolution. We have constructed a force microscope capable of operating immersed in liquid n-pentane and have tested its performance at room temperature with carbon and metal-coated samples, and at 143° K with uncoated ferritin and purple membrane (PM).

A conduction-cooled stage for high-resolution Cryo-SEM

1992 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 1282-1283
Author(s):  
John G. Sheehan
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Liquid Nitrogen ◽  
Mechanical Stability ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Cold Trap ◽  
Nitrogen Gas ◽  
Particulate Suspensions ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Convection Cooling ◽  
Styrene Butadiene

The goal is to examine with high resolution cryo-SEM aqueous particulate suspensions used in coatings for printable paper. A metal-coating chamber for cryo-preparation of such suspensions was described previously. Here, a new conduction-cooling system for the stage and cold-trap in an SEM specimen chamber is described. Its advantages and disadvantages are compared to a convection-cooling system made by Hexland (model CT1000A) and its mechanical stability is demonstrated by examining a sample of styrene-butadiene latex.In recent high resolution cryo-SEM, some stages are cooled by conduction, others by convection. In the latter, heat is convected from the specimen stage by cold nitrogen gas from a liquid-nitrogen cooled evaporative heat exchanger. The advantage is the fast cooling: the Hexland CT1000A cools the stage from ambient temperature to 88 K in about 20 min. However it consumes huge amounts of liquid-nitrogen and nitrogen gas: about 1 ℓ/h of liquid-nitrogen and 400 gm/h of nitrogen gas. Its liquid-nitrogen vessel must be re-filled at least every 40 min.

Computer simulations for the TEM bend contour technique

1996 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 134-135
Author(s):  
Vladimir Yu. Kolosov ◽  
Anders R. Thölén
Keyword(s):  
Computer Simulations ◽  
Real Space ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Short Overview ◽  
Diffraction Contrast ◽  
Beam Method ◽  
Convergent Beam ◽  
Contour Technique

In this paper we give a short overview of two TEM applications utilizing the extinction bend contour technique (BC) giving the advantages and disadvantages; especially we consider two areas in which the BC technique remains unique. Special attention is given to an approach including computer simulations of TEM micrographs.BC patterns are often observed in TEM studies but are rarely exploited in a serious way. However, this type of diffraction contrast was one of the first to be used for analysis of imperfections in crystalline foils, but since then only some groups have utilized the BC technique. The most extensive studies were performed by Steeds, Eades and colleagues. They were the first to demonstrate the unique possibilities of the BC method and named it real space crystallography, which developed later into the somewhat similar but more powerful convergent beam method. Maybe, due to the difficulties in analysis, BCs have seldom been used in TEM, and then mainly to visualize different imperfections and transformations.

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