Tutorial: Ethics for the Wild Robot Frontier

Tutorial taught by grad student. Enrollment limited to 10. Robots and artificial intelligence present a new sort of Wild West. AI programs drive cars without a license; robots offer sexual services in exchange for payment; autonomous weapons systems roam around, looking to kill with impunity. With this new frontier comes significant ethical issues. There are several clusters of questions for us to consider, including most pressing: which technologies are permissible to develop and implement? Second, under the heading of what philosophers sometimes call moral 'agenthood': what would make robots themselves count as agents, and to what standards are they responsible? Finally, under the heading of moral 'patienthood': in what ways can robots be benefited or harmed, and how does this impact humanity's ethical obligations? Each week, our discussion will be framed around a pair of assignments: a short story, TV episode, or video; and a philosophical text. As we move through the course, the questions above will be tackled in the context of specific emerging technologies, such as self-driving cars, autonomous weapons, sex robots, and more. This tutorial is graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory. In order to receive credit, students must read all of the assigned readings, participate in all class meetings, and submit a short reading response for most weeks.