Semi-autonomous and autonomous machines and robots can become moral machines using annotated decision trees containing ethical assumptions or justifications for interactions with animals.
Machine ethics is a young, dynamic discipline, which primarily targets people, not animals. However, it is important that animals are kept from harm when encountering these machines since animals cannot make informed decisions or react as humans would.
Several prototypes of semi-autonomous and autonomous machines that do not startle animals in the wild have been developed at the FHNW University in Brugg-Windisch, Switzerland. The prototypes are a ladybird-friendly robot vacuum cleaner, a self-driving car, a drone study for nature photography and advanced driver assistance systems.
The article “Towards animal-friendly machines” by Professor Oliver Bendel of the FHNW School of Business, published in De Gruyter’s open access journal Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics, describes how annotated decision trees for animal-friendly moral machines are being developed and compared while making the moral justifications transparent.
The modeling for the drone, for example, was presented in 2015 and instructed it to ignore humans, to avoid harming flying birds and to identify skittish animals and only photograph them from an appropriate height.
The robot vacuum cleaner was programmed to identify ladybirds by their coloring, and stop vacuuming until the insect had moved on. Furthermore, the owner could control the morality of the machine by presetting it to spare ladybirds, but vacuum other invasive or undesirable species. This may not seem animal-friendly, but absolute moral rules need not be enforced consistently if, for example, a vermin-free house is justified.
Programming advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in terms of decisions they can make with respect to animals is the main focus of the Robocar design study. The study posits that ADAS should recognize warning signs for toad migration, hedgehog populations or deer crossings and adapt the car’s reactions (emergency brake, reduced speed, etc) accordingly. In short, ADAS systems should identify such animals and animal species directly and react appropriately.
“Both robotics and computer science must be sensitized to animal protection and advocates for animal ethics should follow developments in robotics and artificial intelligences and should be involved in both,” said Professor Bendel.
Learn more: Animal-friendly robots now!
The Latest on: Moral machines
[google_news title=”” keyword=”moral machines” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Moral machines
- Students Are Rejecting the Country’s Culture of Deathon May 14, 2024 at 2:13 pm
For the economic and political establishment, the students protesting Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza constitute a control issue, potentially writ large.
- Nigerian Church cautions against dangers of Artificial Intelligenceon May 13, 2024 at 12:41 am
People should be conscious of the dangers “both economic wise leading to unemployment and the moral issues” connected to Artificial Intelligence, or AI, according to Catholic leaders in Nigeria.
- A moral victoryon May 12, 2024 at 12:38 am
However, while Palestine may have scored a moral victory in the hallowed halls of the UN ... In fact, along with Tel Aviv’s military machine, many civilians in the Zionist state have displayed ...
- The moral voice: KN Raj, an economist with sociological approachon May 11, 2024 at 1:14 pm
KN Raj, who would have turned 100 tomorrow, had a sociological approach to economics. It also informed his understanding of the land market, as he argued for an ...
- Turing test study shows humans rate artificial intelligence as more 'moral' than other peopleon May 6, 2024 at 9:27 am
A new study has found that when people are presented with two answers to an ethical question, most will think the answer from artificial intelligence (AI) is better than the response from another ...
- ChatGPT shows better moral judgement than a college undergradon May 1, 2024 at 9:50 am
On average, the LLM responses were also judged to be "more virtuous, more intelligent, more fair, more trustworthy, a better person, and more rational" to a statistically significant degree. Neither ...
- ChatGPT shows better moral judgment than a college undergradon May 1, 2024 at 9:50 am
For the study, the researchers used a modified version of a Moral Turing Test first proposed in 2000 to judge "human-like performance" on theoretical moral challenges. The researchers started with a ...
- Some on the Right Are Having a Moral Meltdownon April 30, 2024 at 9:01 pm
That conservative moral universe is in decline. Some leading figures on the Right are as confused as the Left on some of the most important moral issues. This was made manifest last week when Tucker ...
- Autonomous weapons reduce moral agency and devalue human lifeon April 30, 2024 at 8:40 pm
Military technology experts gathered in Vienna have warned about the detrimental psychological effects of AI-powered weapons, arguing that implementing systems of algorithmic-enabled killing dehumanis ...
- ‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targetson April 3, 2024 at 5:53 am
Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants ...
via Bing News