Implementations in Machine Ethics: A Survey

Abstract

Increasingly complex and autonomous systems require machine ethics to maximize the bene ts and minimize the risks to society arising from the new technology. It is challenging to decide which type of ethical theory to employ and how to implement it e ectively. is survey provides a threefold contribution. Firstly, it introduces a taxonomy to analyze the eld of machine ethics from an ethical, implementational, and technical perspective. Secondly, an exhaustive selection and description of relevant works is presented. irdly, applying the new taxonomy to the selected works, dominant research pa erns and lessons for the eld are identi ed, and future directions for research are suggested.

The Anatomy of moral agency: A theological and neuroscience inspired model of virtue ethics

“…Tolmeijer et al's classification of technologies used in these various schemes [29] (p. 17) could provide further guidance for system implementors but do not need to be repeated here. The key takeaway from this analysis is that with different configurations and weightings, our model could be adjusted to cover a wide range of possible implementations of machine ethics.…”

“…In this section, we re-analyse the classification system from the recent survey paper by Tolmeijer et al [29], in light of our model, reexamining the taxonomies these authors used to explore machine implementations of ethics.…”

“…The primary classifications of ethical theories from Tolmeijer et al [29] Typically, deontological and utilitarian ethical decisions are usually framed as taking place almost instantaneously, without modelling a time-extended process of deliberation or reflection. By contrast, virtue ethics considers both the inner workings of the decision-making process and the way in which this process is developed-both via reflections on the consequences of actions and their generalisation in possible guidelines for behaviour.…”

“…Here we examine the primary classifications of ethical implementation types from Tolmeijer et al [29] (p. 18), again discussing them in terms of our model. Firstly, these authors distinguish between top-down and bottom-up implementation strategies and models that are a hybrid between these.…”