Can Robots Make Ethical Decisions?

That's been done quite a few times already, no? And then what after you do that? I'm trying to follow the progression.

 

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No, it hasn't been done. We do understand some aspects of it, but there is no complete theory of the mind.

 

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Yes... cause in reality... ther ant anythang besides culture/inviorment an DNA.!!!

 

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What are we missing? What are we not getting?

 

What you think about this.

When we (humans) say ethics, that applies to us, to the society that we built.
Now lets think that one day we got successful in making an artificial brain equally good as human's. Now what about ethics. Fine, since the brain was built by a man, he programs it to behave as human concepts. So, there is no free will there. A robot is not actually making any ethical decisions, but its programmed to do so.

Now, lets think there is no such program which will try to control the robot in any moral way. It just got an free brain. Then aren't we just creating a new species of animal to the nature ?. Which may evolve to a higher level, taking years ?. Or may not even survive ?. And for both the cases, Are they going to co-exist with humans ?.

Or what about if this way. Create robots, with an equal brain, and leav them in some other planet (Or may be, in earth itself, but do something that they dont see humans !!). Then, if they survive,
Aren't they going to evolve exactly as human ?. I mean taking ethical decisions etc etc.. So what we have then ?. A robot , or an Animal ?

 

Is "consciousness" somptin that can not be programed into a robot.???

 

I haven't been in this coversation long so I don't know if you covered this already but, what about the issue of computer controlled missile silos and them making ethical decisions?

 

Originally Posted by draqon
robots with free will

Depends... you thank we have it... so whats you'r definiton of "free will".???

 

Can robots make ethical decisions?

A fascinating question and one that must be answered at some point in the near future. I think ethical behaviors are a must with machines capable of artifical intelligence. Ethics constrain behaviors, limiting them to behaviors that benefit society.

The question I have is would a machine capable of artifical intelligence develop ethics on its own and what would those ethics be? My guess is that if the machine was not social, no interacting with other machines or humans, it would not exhibit ethical behaviors unless an artifical ethical constraint was imposed on it by its creators.

 

Good question and point.

 

A machine that esactly mimics human "consciousness" woud need to be capable of bein rong... but... such a flaw wont be desirable... much less necesary for machines to eventualy be able to out-thank a human.!!!

 

Not only does one need to be able to be wrong, in order to learn. but one must be able to suffer.

Our thoughts, as I pointed out, are not discrete memories, they are bits and pieces that are reconstructed at the point of "recollection".
We learn by our experiences burning themselves into our minds and building patterns which we recognize.
They burn themselves into our minds through emotional branding - they get associated with pain and pleasure.

For an entity to be aware and intelligent, it must be conscious and have the ability to experience the world first hand and have some level of emotional attachment to experiences and it must be able to make mistakes.

What, then, is the point?

 

To learn one must be able to assess value.

 

For clarity.. give a simple esample which describes what you mean.!!!

 

What do you thank consciousness is.???

 

Just about everything.

An example: I look at your picture, your avatar and I instantaneously recognize it as Sandy. I don't have to look at the hair, then the eyes, then the nose, the mouth...I see the picture and identify it. The computer has to scan it and look at specific points programmed into it, usually the triangle created between the eyes and tip of the nose. Then it has to scan its memory, searching every single stored image of a face (scanning all stored images would take forever) until it finds a match. How fast it scans is up to its processor speed. Even the dumbest person around can instantly identify people they know.

http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/whatisai/whatisai.html
is a Stanford link discussing AI.

"Q. How far is AI from reaching human-level intelligence? When will it happen?

A. A few people think that human-level intelligence can be achieved by writing large numbers of programs of the kind people are now writing and assembling vast knowledge bases of facts in the languages now used for expressing knowledge.

However, most AI researchers believe that new fundamental ideas are required, and therefore it cannot be predicted when human-level intelligence will be achieved."

Then there is: an ethical decision is an emotional decision. Even if we ever develop AI, will we ever be able to program computers with emotions? Would you want to? Would you really want you vacuum cleaner to nag you about your housekeeping?

 

By the time "computers" can be designed to have emotons... i suspect it woud be computers doin the designin cause "pure" humans will be a dyin breed... an emotons as "we" know 'em will also be undesirable.!!!

 

Very good.

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LOL about the vacuum.

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That's really good. I didn't think of that. Yet it seems so simply the best/most common sense response.