The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems: Review

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems are rapidly advancing technologies that offer significant benefits but also pose new ethical challenges. This review aims to comprehensively analyze the key ethical issues related to AI and autonomy through an expanded discussion of relevant literature. The development of advanced AI and autonomous systems could enable unprecedented capabilities but also risks that are unprecedented in their nature and scale. Ensuring these technologies are developed and applied in an ethical manner will require addressing issues around safety, transparency, accountability, and the prioritization of human values. Researchers have proposed technical and philosophical approaches to building "friendly" or "beneficial" AI that avoids potential harms. However, many open questions remain about how to properly specify and validate ethical constraints for systems that may surpass human levels of intelligence. Autonomous systems like self-driving vehicles also introduce new ethical dilemmas around responsibility and decision- making in safety-critical situations. Standards are needed to help guide the design of autonomous functions to be transparent, predictable, and respectful of human dignity and diversity. Governments and international organizations have begun outlining policy recommendations for developing AI that is trustworthy and compatible with human rights, privacy, and democratic values.