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Can a Robot Be a Moral Agent?

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Artificial Intelligence (RCAI 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 12412))

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Abstract

Issues of the ethically aligned design of intelligent/autonomous systems have now moved into the fields of normative and technical regulation. If a system must make ethically determined decisions, then it must be recognized as a moral agent. This paper provides a list of the properties of a moral agent and shows not only that an artificial agent can have such properties, but also that they are technically determined as manifestations of adaptive mechanisms. In particular, it is shown that mechanisms such as the presence of the “I” component in the sign-oriented picture of the agent’s world, the presence of an emotional-needs architecture, and the mechanism for comparing the observed conspecific with the “I” make it possible to realize the phenomena of social learning and a property such as empathy.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by the RFBR grant 17-29-07083-ofi_m.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute”, 1 Ac. Kurchatov Sq., Moscow, 123182, Russian Federation

    Valery E. Karpov

  2. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University), MIPT, Institutskiy per. 9, 141701, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, Russian Federation

    Valery E. Karpov

Authors
  1. Valery E. Karpov
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Correspondence to Valery E. Karpov .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Research University Higher School, Moscow, Russia

    Sergei O. Kuznetsov

  2. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, Russia

    Aleksandr I. Panov

  3. Federal Research Center Computer Science and Control, Moscow, Russia

    Konstantin S. Yakovlev

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Karpov, V.E. (2020). Can a Robot Be a Moral Agent?. In: Kuznetsov, S.O., Panov, A.I., Yakovlev, K.S. (eds) Artificial Intelligence. RCAI 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12412. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59535-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59535-7_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-59534-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-59535-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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