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On Autonomy, Governance, and Values: An AGV Approach to Value Engineering

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Value Engineering in Artificial Intelligence (VALE 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 14520))

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Abstract

In this paper we show how to approach the engineering of values in social human-AI systems by looking into the interplay of three notions: autonomy, governance and value (AGV). We propose a particular characterisation of the Value Alignment Problem based on this approach. We use an example to illustrate how the values can be engineered in order to solve the VAP in this example. Based on these elements we advance some arguments in favour of framing a theory of values that may apply to the governance of social systems that involve artificial autonomous entities as well as humans.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Two remarks: (i) In order to become operational, the objective stance assumes a well-defined notion of the state of the system, as the one given for online institutions in [12]. (ii) One may attempt to shy away from a strict notion of goal as a finite set of indicators and one may still hold to the Objective Stance; for instance, identifying a value with particular (“critical”) states of the system that ought to be reached or avoided at any cost. In such case, value satisfaction is a binary decision and value instrumentation would be programmed into the system as a procedure that either always produces or always avoids critical states.

  2. 2.

    For this reason we argue for the adoption of conscientious design in [10,11,12].

  3. 3.

    In fact the social system is an online institution and nothing prevents participatory simulation where some stakeholders are in fact humans.

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Acknowledgements

Authors wish to acknowledge the contributions and fruitful discussions with Mark d’Inverno, Julian Padget and Harko Verhagen. Research for his paper is supported by EU (Horizon-EIC-2021-Pathfinderchallenges-01) Project VALAWAI 101070930; the EU (NextGenerationEU/PRTR program) and the Spanish (MCIN/AEI-10.13039-501100011033 program) project VAE TED2021-131295B-C31; and CSIC’s (Bilateral Collaboration Initiative i-LINK-TEC) project DESAFIA2030 BILTC22005.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC), 08193, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Pablo Noriega & Enric Plaza

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  1. Pablo Noriega
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  2. Enric Plaza
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Correspondence to Pablo Noriega .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, Bellaterra, Spain

    Nardine Osman

  2. Studio Stelluti, Brussel, Belgium

    Luc Steels

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Noriega, P., Plaza, E. (2024). On Autonomy, Governance, and Values: An AGV Approach to Value Engineering. In: Osman, N., Steels, L. (eds) Value Engineering in Artificial Intelligence. VALE 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 14520. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58202-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58202-8_10

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