Raising Ethical Machines

2021 ◽  
pp. 47-68
Author(s):  
Marten H. L. Kaas
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Intelligent Systems ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Machine Ethics ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
The Impact

The ethical decision-making and behaviour of artificially intelligent systems is increasingly important given the prevalence of these systems and the impact they can have on human well-being. Many current approaches to implementing machine ethics utilize top-down approaches, that is, ensuring the ethical decision-making and behaviour of an agent via its adherence to explicitly defined ethical rules or principles. Despite the attractiveness of this approach, this chapter explores how all top-down approaches to implementing machine ethics are fundamentally limited and how bottom-up approaches, in particular, reinforcement learning methods, are not beset by the same problems as top-down approaches. Bottom-up approaches possess significant advantages that make them better suited for implementing machine ethics.

scholarly journals Ethics and Total Worker Health®: Constructs for Ethical Decision-Making and Competencies for Professional Practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (19) ◽  
pp. 10030
Author(s):  
Bonnie Rogers ◽  
Anita L. Schill
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work Hours ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Total Worker Health

Work has become increasingly technologically driven and fast paced, with long work hours, new/emerging hazards, and rising health care costs. Threats to worker safety, health, and well-being including non-traditional work arrangements and practices, precarious work, uncertain hazardous exposures, and work organization issues, such as heavy workloads, design of work, uneven work hours, and difficult interpersonal relationships among workers and managers are apparent. Furthermore, the relationship between personal health risk factors and workplace risks and exposures has drawn increased attention and concern. As employer economic pressures continue to build, it is anticipated that ethical dilemmas for practitioners will become increasingly complex. A review of relevant Total Worker Health (TWH) literature, related ethical constructs and competencies, an examination of codes of ethics for occupational safety and health and health promotion/education disciplines was conducted. A case study for TWH utilizing an ethical decision-making model for the analysis of key ethical issues and solutions was completed. TWH approaches to protecting safety, promoting health, and advancing well-being are increasingly being adopted. These approaches can reveal ethical dilemmas, and ethical constructs are needed to guide decision-making. A core set of proposed ethical competencies for TWH professionals are identified as a transdisciplinary framework to support workplace ethical culture.

A Cross-Cultural Study of the Influence of Country of Origin, Justice, Power Distance, and Gender on Ethical Decision Making

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary B. Curtis ◽  
Teresa L. Conover ◽  
Lawrence C. Chui
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Behavioral Intentions ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Distance Perception ◽  
Power Distance ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Justice Perceptions ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT This study examines the impact of national culture on ethical decision making. We theorize and test a mediation model where country of origin influences perceptions of justice and power distance, which in turn influence behavioral intentions in regard to ethical dilemmas. Our sample includes accounting students from four countries: China, Japan, Mexico, and the U.S. We find that country of origin, justice perceptions, power distance perception, and gender are all related to ethical decision making. We investigate these relationships with two different ethical scenarios, and find that these relationships differ between the two contexts. Additionally, power distance and justice partially mediate the relationship between country of origin and ethical decision making. We find that gender is significantly related to ethical decision making in one of the two scenarios, and explore gender differences in all of the measured constructs across countries. Finally, we contrast the various measures of justice, power distance, and agreement with behavioral intentions in the two ethical scenarios between countries. We find that the two eastern countries (China and Japan) and the two western countries (U.S. and Mexico) demonstrate expected East-West patterns in power distance. However, this East-versus-West pattern is not supported when considering between-country differences in justice, agreement with the layoff decision, and agreement with whistleblowing.

The Impact of Ethical Decision Making in the Individual and Organizational Context

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 9337-9341
Author(s):  
Amin Vakilbashi ◽  
Okeke Emmanuel Obumnaeme ◽  
Nor Aiza Mohd Zamil ◽  
Mozhdeh Mokhber
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Hunt-Vitell’s General Theory of Marketing Ethics Predicts ‘Attitude-Behaviour’ Gap in Pro-Environmental Domain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Zaikauskaite ◽  
Gemma Butler ◽  
Nurul F. S. Helmi ◽  
Charlotte L. Robinson ◽  
Dimitrios Tsivrikos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Marketing Ethics ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Environmental Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Domain ◽  
The Us ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
The Impact

The inconsistency between pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour, known as the ‘attitude-behaviour’ gap, is not uncommon to ethical decision-making, however it’s exceptionally pronounced in scenarios associated with ‘green’ choice. Despite existing research offering numerous attempts to investigate the causes of the ‘attitude-behaviour’ gap in the pro-environmental domain, it is surprising that the major factors driving the ‘attitude-behaviour’ gap are still unknown. Therefore, we have grounded this study in Hunt-Vitell’s moral philosophy-based framework of ethical decision-making, which assumes morality as the central force impacting one’s behaviour and tested its effectiveness in predicting pro-environmental intentions vs. behaviours. The results from an online study of 612 MTurk participants from the US revealed that participants’ decision-making indeed depended on deontological and teleological framing of pro-environmental scenarios, and this in turn predicted the declining relationship between intention vs. behaviour. These findings suggest that morality is central to pro-environmental decision-making, and the ‘attitude-behaviour’ gap is the result of the disintegrated effects of moral dimension. For this reason, strengthening the impact of morality could be sufficient for aligning intentions with behaviours and thus closing the ‘attitude-behaviour’ gap.

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