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{\large \bf Just Another Artifact: \\
  Ethics and the Empirical Experience of AI} \\
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{\it Joanna Bryson} and {\it Phil Kime} \\
{Edinburgh University, UK} \\
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In March of 1995 Daniel Dennett chaired the EPIIC Workshop on
Darwinism and Artificial Intelligence at Tufts University.  On the
second day of the event the group began discussing a future world in
which artificially intelligent machines ran the world, making all
critical decisions, and would inevitably decide humanity was not worth
supporting. One of the participants, Professor Rodney Brooks (now
director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory) was called
``conservative'' for venturing the opinion that this {\em might} not
happen. (\cite{Dennett...} See also Robots Rising, other paper.)

What can lead some computer scientists to believe that our society is
endangered by AI?  After all, computer programs, including those
classified as ``artificial intelligence,'' are purpose-built artifacts
designed and controlled by human beings.  While computers can
accelerate and magnify our mistakes to do more damage than an unaided
individual is capable of, the same could be said of levers and
pulleys.  We believe the exaggerated fear of AI is symptomatic of a
larger problem, a general confusion about the nature of humanity and
the role of ethics in society.  

In this paper we will begin with a brief exploration of how rules of
relations are incorporated our society, that is, of our ethical
constructs and how they relate to our sense of self.  We seek to
establish that one of the most important aspects of an ethical system
is that it is automotivated.  As such, ethical systems often depend on
the individual's identification with the benefactors of the system.
In short, ethics is dependent on empathy born of empirical experience,
and the nature of this experience can be determined by our society.

Next, we argue that both misplaced hopes and fears for artificial
intelligence are a consequence of our over-identification with AI
systems.  We suggest that this identification is rooted in our naive,
ill-considered understanding of relatedness, of what it is to be human
and to what we owe ethical obligations.  As a consequence, we identify
with machines that seem to share our culture, language and
intelligence.  This results both in lowering our own self-image,
opening the way for reductionistic fears, and the raising of
expectations for AI, expecting that it will service our ambitions in
our own stead.

The final section begins by examining the real role of artificial
intelligence in the world today, which is significantly less dramatic
than the hopes and fears described previously.  We argue that the
ethical conundrums around the use of AI are, though significant, not
substantially different from those surrounding artifacts with which we
are already familiar, such as politics, religion, art and machinery of
industry and war.  We then propose that, in fact, the experience of
artificial intelligence could be used to help us to accelerate the
development and rationalization of our ethical systems.  

The nature of this paper is primarily speculative --- we derive the
content from a foundational knowledge of the psychology and the
philosophy of ethics, and a strong familiarity with the disciplines of
artificial life and artificial intelligence and their research
communities.  The final section however does propose some testable
hypothesese, and we are actively engaged in preparing the
opportunities to pursue this research.




which having
so far largely evolved within cultures and societies, are currently
hard pressed to keep up with the rate of cultural change.  
The empirical
experience of AI can help us to understand intuitively the nature of
the various relations that are potentially ethically significant.


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