Autonomy on Land and Sea and in the Air and Space Proceedings of a Forum (2018) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Ethics of Automation
2 The Ethics of Automation
Pages 20-28
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From page 20... ...
Such systems are not new: he cited an Austrian attack on the city of Venice in 1849 that used unmanned balloons carrying explosives. "When you think of an autonomous system, you might think of something sophisticated like a self-driving car, but technically speaking a balloon with a bomb on it is a form of automation." Unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs)
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From page 21... ...
"It is a huge risk to animals and above things, they override a machine and then should not be prioritized above each be wrong." other. However, a web-based poll – Joichi Ito about hypothetical events related to the trolley dilemma demonstrated that people would be biased toward saving children rather than adults.
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In Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, author Lawrence Lessig proposed that systems be seen as products of four factors: technology, the law, social norms, and economic markets. "These four things relate with each other in how technologies get deployed into society," said Ito, thereby providing a way "to think about how you might design or intervene in the deployment of a complex system." At the Media Lab, Ito and his colleagues have been using the term extended intelligence instead of artificial intelligence.
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From page 23... ...
"Corporations are a great example of a kind of automation that is like an artificial intelligence." To illustrate the need for systems thinking, Ito discussed analyses showing that the risk factors used in the criminal justice system to decide on bail, sentencing, and parole are biased against dark-skinned people. In this case, both the data and the algorithms used to make decisions can be flawed, requiring that the system as a whole be considered to reduce bias.
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From page 24... ...
In the same way that songs can have as lasting and substantial an impact on a society as laws, design includes factors like aesthetics that influence human behavior. "When you realize that one way to intervene in a system is through things like song," he said, it "loops back to the beginning of design." AUTOMATED DECISIONS Patrick Lin, director of the Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group at C alifornia Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, introduced a slightly different definition of auto mation in his plenary presentation.
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Artificial intelligence is being used in criminal sentencing, hiring, bank lending, and many other operations, raising ethical questions related to job displacement, privacy, human-subjects research, psychological effects, and many other issues, Lin said. RIGHT, WRONG, AND NOT RIGHT OR WRONG Lin discussed "proper" decision making, dividing decisions into three types: those that are right, those that are wrong, and those that are not right or wrong and require judgment.
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From page 26... ...
Automated decision making also can introduce the risk of structural biases. For example, if a man goes online to look for jobs, he is more likely to be shown chief executive officer jobs than would be the case for a woman.
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From page 27... ...
"But sometimes the fastest route could be the more dangerous route," he cautioned, with more intersections, unprotected left turns, or children playing nearby. If "an accident happened because the car chose this more dangerous route, arguably that could be on the manufacturer." THE ETHICS OF SUPERPOWERS Looking ahead, Lin posited that one way to extend ethics into new domains is to connect ethical issues to more easily analyzed circumstances.
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From page 28... ...
"We have to think about the ways that technology is changing us -- and changing our obligations and responsibilities." Everyone is a stakeholder in a technology-driven world, Lin concluded, but those who conceive of new ideas and implement them in society have distinct roles. He closed with a quotation from the British scientist Martin Rees2: "Scientists surely have a special responsibility.
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