Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Artificial Intelligence Safety Engineering: Why Machine Ethics Is a Wrong Approach

  • Chapter
Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence

Part of the book series: Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics ((SAPERE,volume 5))

Abstract

Machine ethics and robot rights are quickly becoming hot topics in artificial intelligence/robotics communities. We will argue that the attempts to allow machines to make ethical decisions or to have rights are misguided. Instead we propose a new science of safety engineering for intelligent artificial agents. In particular we issue a challenge to the scientific community to develop intelligent systems capable of proving that they are in fact safe even under recursive self-improvement.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Ajina, S., Yampolskiy, R.V., Amara, N.E.B.: SVM Classification of Avatar Facial Recognition. In: 8th International Symposium on Neural Networks (ISNN2011), Guilin, China, May 29- June 1 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Ali, N., Hindi, M., Yampolskiy, R.V.: Evaluation of Authorship Attribution Software on a Chat Bot Corpus. In: 23rd International Symposium on Information, Communication and Automation Technologies (ICAT2011), Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, October 27-29 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Allen, C., Smit, I., Wallach, W.: Artificial Morality: Top-down. Bottom-up, and Hybrid Approaches. Ethics and Information Technology 7(3)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Allen, C., Varner, G., Zinser, J.: Prolegomena to any future artificial moral agent. Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence 12, 251–261 (2000)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Allen, C., Wallach, W., Smit, I.: Why Machine Ethics? IEEE Intelligent Systems 21(4), 12–17 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Anderson, M., Anderson, S.L.: Machine Ethics: Creating an Ethical Intelligent Agent. AI Magazine 28(4), 15–26 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Anonymous, Reducing Long-term Catastrophic Risks from Artificial Intelligence The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (2011), http://singinst.org/riskintro/index.html

  8. Bishop, M.: Why Computers Can’t Feel Pain. Minds and Machines 19(4), 507–516 (2009)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. Bostrom, N.: Oracle AI (2008), http://lesswrong.com/lw/qv/the_rhythm_of_disagreement/

  10. Bouhhris, M., Beck, M., Mahamed, A., Amara, N.E.B., D’Souza, D., Yampolskiy, R.V.: Artificial Human-Face Recognition via Daubechies Wavelet Transform and SVM. In: 16th International Conference on Computer Games: AI, Animation, Mobile, Interactive Multimedia, Educational & Serious Games, Louisville, KY, USA, July 27 - 30, pp. 18–25 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Butler, S.: Darwin Among the Machines, To the Editor of Press, Christchurch, New Zealand, June 13 (1863)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Chalmers, D.: The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis. Journal of Consciousness Studies 17, 7–65 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Dennett, D.C.: Why You Can’t Make a Computer That Feels Pain. Synthese 38(3), 415–456 (1978)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Drexler, E.: Engines of Creation. Anchor Press (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Epstein, R.G.: Computer Psychologists Command Big Bucks (1997) http://www.cs.wcupa.edu/~epstein/comppsy.htm

  16. Gavrilova, M., Yampolskiy, R.: Applying Biometric Principles to Avatar Recognition. In: International Conference on Cyberworlds (CW 2010), Singapore, October 20-22 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Gordon-Spears, D.: Assuring the behavior of adaptive agents. In: Rouff, C.A., et al. (eds.) Agent Technology From a Formal Perspective, pp. 227–259. Kluwer (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Gordon-Spears, D.F.: Asimov’s Laws: Current Progress. In: Hinchey, M.G., Rash, J.L., Truszkowski, W.F., Rouff, C.A., Gordon-Spears, D.F. (eds.) FAABS 2002. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 2699, pp. 257–259. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  19. Gordon, D.F.: Well-Behaved Borgs, Bolos, and Berserkers. In: 15th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 1998), San Francisco, CA (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Grau, C.: There Is No “I” in “Robot”: Robots and Utilitarianism. IEEE Intelligent Systems 21(4), 52–55 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Guo, S., Zhang, G.: Robot Rights. Science 323, 876 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Hall, J.S.: Ethics for Machines (2000), http://autogeny.org/ethics.html

  23. Hall, J.S.: Self-Improving AI: An Analysis. Minds and Machines 17(3), 249–259 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Hanson, R.: Prefer Law to Values (October 10, 2009), http://www.overcomingbias.com/2009/10/prefer-law-to-values.html

  25. Joy, B.: Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us. Wired Magazine 8(4) (April 2000)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Kaczynski, T.: Industrial Society and Its Future. The New York Times (September 19, 1995)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Lin, P., Abney, K., Bekey, G.: Robot Ethics: Mapping the Issues for a Mechanized World. Artificial Intelligence (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Margaret, A., Henry, J.: Computer Ethics: The Role of Personal, Informal, and Formal Codes. Journal of Business Ethics 15(4), 425

    Google Scholar 

  29. McDermott, D.: Why Ethics is a High Hurdle for AI. In: North American Conference on Computers and Philosophy (NACAP 2008), Bloomington, Indiana (July 2008), http://cs-www.cs.yale.edu/homes/dvm/papers/ethical-machine.pdf

  30. Mohamed, A., Baili, N., D’Souza, D., Yampolskiy, R.V.: Avatar Face Recognition Using Wavelet Transform and Hierarchical Multi-scale LBP. In: The Tenth International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA 2011), Honolulu, USA, December 18-21 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Mohamed, A., Yampolskiy, R.V.: An Improved LBP Algorithm for Avatar Face Recognition. In: 23rd International Symposium on Information, Communi-cation and Automation Technologies (ICAT 2011), Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, pp. 27–29 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Moor, J.H.: The Nature, Importance, and Difficulty of Machine Ethics. IEEE Intelligent Systems 21(4), 18–21 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Powers, T.M.: Prospects for a Kantian Machine. IEEE Intelligent Systems 21(4), 46–51 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Rappaport, Z.H.: Robotics and artificial intelligence: Jewish ethical perspectives. Acta Neurochir. 98, 9–12 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Roh, D.: Do Humanlike Machines Deserve Human Rights? Wired (January 19, 2009), http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-02/st_essay

  36. Ruvinsky, A.I.: Computational Ethics. In: Quigley, M. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Information Ethics and Security, pp. 76–73 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Sawyer, R.J.: Robot Ethics. Science 318, 1037 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Sharkey, N.: The Ethical Frontiers of Robotics. Science 322, 1800–1801 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Sparrow, R.: Killer Robots. Journal of Applied Philosophy 24(1), 62–77 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Tonkens, R.: A Challenge for Machine Ethics. Minds & Machines 19(3), 421–438 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Veruggio, G.: Roboethics. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine 17(2) (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Wallach, W., Allen, C.: EthicALife: A new field of inquiry. In: AnAlifeX workshop, USA (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Warwick, K.: Cyborg Morals, Cyborg Values, Cyborg Ethics. Ethics and Information Technology 5, 131–137 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Wendell, W., Colin, A.: Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong. Oxford University Press (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  45. Yampolskiy, R.V.: Behavioral Biometrics for Verification and Recognition of AI Programs. In: 20th Annual Computer Science and Engineering Graduate Conference (GradConf 2007), Buffalo, NY (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Yampolskiy, R.V.: Leakproofing Singularity - Artificial Intelligence Confinement Problem. Journal of Consciousness Studies (JCS) 19(1-2) (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  47. Yampolskiy, R.V., Cho, G., Rosenthal, R., Gavrilova, M.L.: Evaluation of Face Detection and Recognition Algorithms on Avatar Face Datasets. In: International Conference on Cyberworlds (CW 2011), Banff, Alberta, Canada, October 4-6 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  48. Yampolskiy, R.V., Govindaraju, V.: Behavioral Biometrics for Recognition and Verification of Game Bots. In: The 8th annual European Game-On Conference on Simulation and AI in Computer Games (GAMEON 2007), Bologna, Italy, November 20-22 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  49. Yampolskiy, R.V., Govindaraju, V.: Behavioral Biometrics for Verification and Recognition of Malicious Software Agents, Sensors, and Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I) Technologies for Homeland Security and Homeland Defense VII. In: SPIE Defense and Security Symposium, Orlando, Florida, March 16-20 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Engineering and Computer Science, University of Louisville, Louisville, USA

    Roman V. Yampolskiy

Authors
  1. Roman V. Yampolskiy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roman V. Yampolskiy .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. and University of Oxford, Anatolia College/ACT, Pylaia, 55510, Greece

    Vincent C. Müller

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Yampolskiy, R.V. (2013). Artificial Intelligence Safety Engineering: Why Machine Ethics Is a Wrong Approach. In: Müller, V. (eds) Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence. Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, vol 5. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31674-6_29

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31674-6_29

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-31673-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-31674-6

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation