Abstract
Recent work in AI ethics often calls for AI to advance human values and interests. The concept of “AI for people” is one notable example. Though commendable in some respects, this work falls short by excluding the moral significance of nonhumans. This paper calls for a shift in AI ethics to more inclusive paradigms such as “AI for the world” and “AI for the universe”. The paper outlines the case for more inclusive paradigms and presents implications for moral philosophy and computer science work on AI ethics.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baum SD (2020) Social choice ethics in artificial intelligence. AI Soc 35(1):165–176
Bostrom N (2014) Superintelligence: paths, dangers, strategies. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Braunschweig B, Ghallab M (eds) (2021) Reflections on artificial intelligence for humanity. Springer, Cham
Floridi L, Cowls J, Beltrametti M, Chatila R, Chazerand P, Dignum V, Luetge C, Madelin R, Pagallo U, Rossi F, Schafer B (2018) AI4People—an ethical framework for a good AI society: opportunities, risks, principles, and recommendations. Mind Mach 28(4):689–707
García-Martín E, Rodrigues CF, Riley G, Grahn H (2019) Estimation of energy consumption in machine learning. J Parallel Distrib Comput 134:75–88
Gunkel DJ (2018) Robot rights. MIT Press, Cambridge
Milligan T (2015) Nobody owns the moon: the ethics of space exploitation. McFarland and Company, Jefferson
Owe A, Baum SD (2021a) Moral consideration of nonhumans in the ethics of artificial intelligence. AI Ethics 1(4):517–528
Owe A, Baum SD (2021b) The ethics of sustainability for artificial intelligence. In: Proceedings of the 1st international conference on AI for people: towards sustainable AI (CAIP 2021b), pp 1–17
Rolnick D, Donti PL, Kaack LH, Kochanski K, Lacoste A, Sankaran K, Ross AS, Milojevic-Dupont N, Jaques N, Waldman-Brown A, Luccioni A (2019) Tackling climate change with machine learning. https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.05433
Rolston H III (1988) Environmental ethics: duties to and values in the natural world. Temple University Press, Philadelphia
Russell S (2019) Human compatible: artificial intelligence and the problem of control. Penguin, New York
Sandberg A (2014) Ethics of brain emulations. J Exp Theor Artif Intell 26(3):439–457
Sen A (1973) Behavior and the concept of preference. Economica 40(159):241–259
Taylor P (1986) Respect for nature: a theory of environmental ethics. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Acknowledgements
We thank Robert de Neufville and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper. Any remaining errors are the authors’ alone.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Baum, S.D., Owe, A. From AI for people to AI for the world and the universe. AI & Soc 38, 679–680 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01402-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01402-5