How To Create Conscious A.I.

Artificial General Intelligence, 2019

In the light of ongoing progresses of research on artificial intelligent systems exhibiting a steadily increasing problem-solving ability, the identification of practicable solutions to the value alignment problem in AGI Safety is becoming a matter of urgency. In this context, one preeminent challenge that has been addressed by multiple researchers is the adequate formulation of utility functions or equivalents reliably capturing human ethical conceptions. However, the specification of suitable utility functions harbors the risk of "perverse instantiation" for which no final consensus on responsible proactive countermeasures has been achieved so far. Amidst this background, we propose a novel non-normative socio-technological ethical framework denoted Augmented Utilitarianism which directly alleviates the perverse instantiation problem. We elaborate on how augmented by AI and more generally science and technology, it might allow a society to craft and update ethical utility functions while jointly undergoing a dynamical ethical enhancement. Further, we elucidate the need to consider embodied simulations in the design of utility functions for AGIs aligned with human values. Finally, we discuss future prospects regarding the usage of the presented scientifically grounded ethical framework and mention possible challenges.

International journal of business, humanities and technology, 2019

Artificial intelligence is cycling into another peak of enthusiasm right now with long-time evangelists like Kurzweil redoubling their hyperbole and Elon Musk suggesting that the odds are "a billion to one" that we are not already living in an AI simulation matrix. There is a new wave of attention within the formerly silent fields of economics, strategy, and management from those like Agrawal, Gans, and Goldfarb (2018) who see the lower prices of AIpowered "prediction" reshaping entire industries. Others more skeptical see genuine human reasoning of the kind needed to, e.g., make firm-level strategic decisions, impossible for machines to duplicate and safe from encroachment for the foreseeable future. In this paper, I look at whether we have achieved human-like implemented AI (HLI-AI), a question which requires an exploration of what cognition and intelligence fundamentally are. I then look at what would be needed to build it, and then suggest a distinction between HLI-AI and human problem solving AI (HPS-AI)-the former is what we do not currently have, the latter is implemented in a wide variety of (non human-like) techniques that solve human-relevant problems. Finally, I suggest a way forward for reasonable expectations of the role for HPS-AI in the socio-techno world.

2019

The role of automation presents a double-edged sword as it directly benefits one side as it disadvantages the other. Artificial intelligence allows for increasingly more sophisticated automation. In my essay, I argue that the use of Automated Artificial Intelligent Systems (AAIS) create ethical implications that impact negatively on the “average worker”1(Ford, 2015: 34), whilst having a positive impact for corporations/manufacturers. I argue that ethical implications of automation are not exclusive to the fourth industrial revolution, or entirely new development. In addition, the use of A.I. in automation means the ethical implications have only worsened. A.I. and the ethical implications of its use exist in the literature but these deal mainly with issue of privacy (Ford, 2015) accountability (MacNamara, Smith and Murphy-Hill, 2018) and how to build A.I. ethically (Hagendorff, 2019) to name a few. There is a lack of literature that focuses on the relationship that exists between A....

Journal of Ethics and Legal Technologies, 2020

In this paper, we analyse the structure of evolving moral dilemmas with an eye of regard for the increasing importance of the role of artificial intelligence in such context. Starting with the analysis of the famous trolley problem experiment as formulated by Philippa Foot, we consider subsequent variants of this moral dilemma conceived throughout the years, culminating with formulations of the trolley problem concerning artificial intelligence, in which self-driving vehicles will have to make life or death decisions autonomously. In doing so, we investigate the basis for the construction of dilemmatic questions both for humans and machines by considering the problem from a philosophical, social and neuroscientific perspective. After considering and analysing the trolley problem in utilitarian and deontological terms, we follow Rittel and Webber's footsteps, by highlighting the fallacies of the deontological and utilitarian traditional 'one-right-answer' approach, where a solution is undoubtedly right or wrong, and claim that moral problems are not, due to their intrinsic dilemmatic nature, resolvable. By rejecting an aut-aut approach, we find ourselves contemplating the possibility of neither approach being right in an absolute sense. Given these premises, we present a different approach on the matter, arguing for the central and creative role of the tragic as a new tool for enhancing both human and autonomous vehicles' approach to moral problems.

Philosophy & Technology, 2025

AI systems increasingly support human decision-making across domains of professional, skill-based, and personal activity. While previous work has examined how AI might affect human autonomy globally, the effects of AI on domain-specific autonomy-the capacity for self-governed action within defined realms of skill or expertise-remain understudied. We analyze how AI decision-support systems affect two key components of domain-specific autonomy: skilled competence (the ability to make informed judgments within one's domain) and authentic value-formation (the capacity to form genuine domainrelevant values and preferences). By engaging with prior investigations and analyzing empirical cases across medical, financial, and educational domains, we demonstrate how the absence of reliable failure indicators and the potential for unconscious value shifts can erode domain-specific autonomy both immediately and over time. We then develop a constructive framework for autonomy-preserving AI support systems. We propose specific socio-technical design patterns-including careful role specification, implementation of defeater mechanisms, and support for reflective practice-that can help maintain domain-specific autonomy while leveraging AI capabilities. This framework provides concrete guidance for developing AI systems that enhance rather than diminish human agency within specialized domains of action.