Is it time for robot rights? Moral status in artificial entities

Some authors have recently suggested that it is time to consider rights for robots. These suggestions are based on the claim that the question of robot rights should not depend on a standard set of conditions for ‘moral status’; but instead, the question is to be framed in a new way, by rejecting the is/ought distinction, making a relational turn, or assuming a methodological behaviourism. We try to clarify these suggestions and to show their highly problematic consequences. While we find the suggestions ultimately unmotivated, the discussion shows that our epistemic condition with respect to the moral status of others does raise problems, and that the human tendency to empathise with things that do not have moral status should be taken seriously—we suggest that it produces a “derived moral status”. Finally, it turns out that there is typically no individual in real AI that could even be said to be the bearer of moral status. Overall, there is no reason to think that robot rights are an issue now.

     

Is chess the drosophila artificial intelligence? A social history of an algorithm

Since the mid 1960s, researchers in computer science have famously referred to chess as the 'drosophila' of artificial intelligence (AI). What they seem to mean by this is that chess, like the common fruit fly, is an accessible, familiar, and relatively simple experimental technology that nonetheless can be used productively to produce valid knowledge about other, more complex systems. But for historians of science and technology, the analogy between chess and drosophila assumes a larger significance. As Robert Kohler has ably described, the decision to adopt drosophila as the organism of choice for genetics research had far-reaching implications for the development of 20th century biology. In a similar manner, the decision to focus on chess as the measure of both human and computer intelligence had important and unintended consequences for AL research. This paper explores the emergence of chess as an experimental technology, its significance in the developing research practices of the AI community, and the unique ways in which the decision to focus on chess shaped the program of AI research in the decade of the 1970s. More broadly, it attempts to open up the virtual black box of computer software--and of computer games in particular--to the scrutiny of historical and sociological analysis.     

Evolution of artificial ion channelsOA

<正>Protein ion channels on a cell membrane generate action potentials for cellular signal transduction, and regulate biological activities during life. Since the discovery of the asymmetric ion transport phenomenon in quartz nanopipettes by Bard and colleagues [1], synthetic nanofluidic materials and devices have attracted a lot of research interests from the scientific community,     

How can artificial intelligence enhance car manufacturing? A Delphi study-based identification and assessment of general use cases

The latest boom of artificial intelligence (AI) has left the information management community in strong need of structure-providing, high-level overview works. Such works are supposed to allow both researchers and practitioners to keep track of that steep development across the technology's numerous possible application domains. So it is among other things that AI is said to incorporate enormous potential for reducing the operational costs of car manufacturers all over the globe. Nevertheless, many of them are still struggling with adopting it at large scale just because of a lack of knowledge on if and where to apply it. This study is therefore designed to find out which general use cases exist for AI within the context of car manufacturing and which ones might be the most promising ones to pursue at this early stage. We conducted a Delphi study with 39 experts in 25 different globally scattered organizations over one and a half years. As a result, we were able to identify 20 different high-level use cases for AI along the entire car manufacturing process. Our panelists have completely ranked and assessed those 20 use cases within two different dimensions, i.e., their estimated business value and their realizability. Besides being the first study to provide such an overview at one glance and to give such quantitative insights on that steeply emerging topic, four use cases from that list have never been discussed in connection with car manufacturing within the scientific literature until now and can therefore be considered as completely new in that regard.     

How to feel about emotionalized artificial intelligence? When robot pets,holograms, and chatbots become affective partners

Ethics and Information Technology - Interactions between humans and machines that include artificial intelligence are increasingly common in nearly all areas of life. Meanwhile, AI-products are...     

Trust and multi-agent systems: applying the “diffuse,default model” of trust to experiments involving artificial agents

We argue that the notion of trust, as it figures in an ethical context, can be illuminated by examining research in artificial intelligence on multi-agent systems in which commitment and trust are modeled. We begin with an analysis of a philosophical model of trust based on Richard Holton’s interpretation of P. F. Strawson’s writings on freedom and resentment, and we show why this account of trust is difficult to extend to artificial agents (AAs) as well as to other non-human entities. We then examine Margaret Urban Walker’s notions of “default trust” and “default, diffuse trust” to see how these concepts can inform our analysis of trust in the context of AAs. In the final section, we show how ethicists can improve their understanding of important features in the trust relationship by examining data resulting from a classic experiment involving AAs.     

Will coolness factors predict user satisfaction and loyalty? Evidence from an artificial neural network–structural equation model approach

Our research attempts to track the role of coolness factors (i.e., attractiveness, subculture, and uniqueness) on user satisfaction and loyalty with respect to technological products. For this purpose, we construct a model for a particular technological product on the basis of coolness and satisfaction–loyalty theories. We then gather survey-based data from 454 Koreans for measuring the coolness factors, satisfaction, and loyalty variables. Subsequently, we employ an artificial neural network–structural equation model for testing the proposed model. Based on the outcomes, (1) we find that attractiveness and uniqueness have notable and positive effects on satisfaction, (2) whereas, subculture does not have a considerable impact on satisfaction. (3) In addition, a positive association between satisfaction and loyalty is identified. (4) Interestingly, there are no significant moderating influences of age and gender on the associations of coolness elements. Overall, the outcomes of our research contribute to the expansion of the literature regarding coolness theory and user experience of technologies.     

Artificial agency, consciousness, and the criteria for moral agency: what properties must an artificial agent have to be a moral agent?

In this essay, I describe and explain the standard accounts of agency, natural agency, artificial agency, and moral agency, as well as articulate what are widely taken to be the criteria for moral agency, supporting the contention that this is the standard account with citations from such widely used and respected professional resources as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. I then flesh out the implications of some of these well-settled theories with respect to the prerequisites that an ICT must satisfy in order to count as a moral agent accountable for its behavior. I argue that each of the various elements of the necessary conditions for moral agency presupposes consciousness, i.e., the capacity for inner subjective experience like that of pain or, as Nagel puts it, the possession of an internal something-of-which-it is-is-to-be-like. I ultimately conclude that the issue of whether artificial moral agency is possible depends on the issue of whether it is possible for ICTs to be conscious.     

Inspired,but not mimicking: a conversation between artificial intelligence and human intelligenceOA

<正>How intelligent is artificial intelligence(AI)? How intelligent will it become in the future? What is the relationship between AI and human intelligence(HI)? These questions have been a hot topic of discussion in recent years, but no consensus has yet been reached. To discuss these issues, we should first understand the concept of intelligence as well as the underlying mechanisms for both HI and AI. In this NSR Forum, experts from both disciplines gathered to discuss these issues; in pa...