diff --git a/blogContent/posts/other/media/selfDrivingCars/moralMachine.png b/blogContent/posts/other/media/selfDrivingCars/moralMachine.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..308650f Binary files /dev/null and b/blogContent/posts/other/media/selfDrivingCars/moralMachine.png differ diff --git a/blogContent/posts/other/media/selfDrivingCars/moralMachine6.png b/blogContent/posts/other/media/selfDrivingCars/moralMachine6.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a5428a Binary files /dev/null and b/blogContent/posts/other/media/selfDrivingCars/moralMachine6.png differ diff --git a/blogContent/posts/other/media/selfDrivingCars/moralmachine3.png b/blogContent/posts/other/media/selfDrivingCars/moralmachine3.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7409333 Binary files /dev/null and b/blogContent/posts/other/media/selfDrivingCars/moralmachine3.png differ diff --git a/blogContent/posts/other/morality-of-self-driving-cars.md b/blogContent/posts/other/morality-of-self-driving-cars.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..931152b --- /dev/null +++ b/blogContent/posts/other/morality-of-self-driving-cars.md @@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ + + +Although the movie *I Robot* has not aged well, it still brings up some interesting ethical questions +that we are still discussing concerning self driving cars. The protagonist Detective Spooner +has an almost unhealthy amount of distrust towards +robots. In the movie, a robot decided to save Spooner's life over a 12 year old girl in a car accident. +This ignites the famous ethical debate of the trolley problem, but, now with artificial intelligence. +The question boils down to this: are machines capable of making moral decisions. The + surface level answer from the movie is **no** when it presents Spooner's car crash antidote. +This question parallels the discussion that we are currently having with self driving cars. +When a self driving car is presented with two options which result in the loss of life, +what should it choose? + + + +When surveyed, most people say that they would prefer to have self driving cars take the utilitarian +approach towards the trolley problem. A utilitarian approach would try to minimize the + total amount of harm. MIT made a neat [website](http://moralmachine.mit.edu/) where it presents you with a +bunch of "trolley problems" where you have to decide who dies. At the end of the survey the +website presents you with a list of observed preferences you made with the trolley problem. +The purpose of the trolley problem is merely to ponder what decision a self driving car +should make when **all** of its alternatives are depleted. + +![Moral Machine](media/selfDrivingCars/moralmachine3.png) + + +We still need to question whether +utilitarianism is the right moral engine for self driving cars. Would it be ethical +for a car to take into account +you age, race, gender, and social status when deciding if you get to live? +If self driving cars could access personal information such as criminal history or known friends, would it + be ethical to use that information? Would it be moral for +someone to make a car which favored the safety of the passengers of the car above +others? + +![Moral Machine](media/selfDrivingCars/moralMachine.png) + + +Even though most people want self driving cars to use utilitarianism, most people surveyed also responded +that they would not buy a car which did not have their safety as its top priority. +This brings up a serious social dilemma. If people want everyone else's cars to be utilitarians, +yet, have their own cars be greedy and favor their safety, we would see none of the utilitarian improvements. This +presented us with the tragedy of the commons problem since everyone would favor their own +safety and nobody would sacrifice their safety for the public good. This brings up yet another question: +would it be fair to ask someone to sacrifice their safety in this way? + +In most cases, when a tragedy of the commons situation is presented, government intervention is + the most piratical solution. It might be the best to have the government +mandate that all cars try to maximize the amount of life saved when a car is presented with the +trolley problem. Despite appearing to be a good solution, the flaw in this does not become apparent before you us +consequentialism to examine this problem. + +![Moral Machine](media/selfDrivingCars/moralMachine6.png) + +Self driving cars are expected to reduce car accidents by 90% by cutting out human error. If people +decide to not use self driving cars due to the utilitarian moral engine, we run the +risk of actually loosing more lives. Some people have actually argued that since +artificial intelligence is incapable of making moral decisions, they should actually take +no action at all when there is a situation which will always results in the loss of life. +In the frame of the trolley problem, +it is best for the artificial intelligence to not pull the lever. I will argue that +it is best for self driving cars to not make ethical +decisions because, it would result in the highest adoption rate of self driving cars which in +the long run would save the most lives. The likelihood that a car is actually presented with + a trolley problem is pretty slim. + +The discussion over the moral decisions a car has to make is almost fruitless. It turns out +that humans are not even good at making moral decisions in emergency situations. When we make rash decisions +influenced by anxiety, we are heavily influenced by prejudices and self motives. Despite our own shortcomings when it +comes to decision making, that does not mean that we can not do better with self driving cars. However, +we need to realize that it actually is the mass adoption of self driving cars which will save the most lives, not +the moral engine which we program the cars with. We cannot let the moral engine of the self driving +car get in the way of adoption. + +The conclusion I made parallels Spooner's problem with robots in the movie *I Robot*. Spooner was so mad at the robots for +saving his own life rather than the girl that he never realize that if it was not for the robots, neither of them would +have survived that car crash. Does that mean we can't do better than not pulling the lever? Well... not exactly. +Near the end of the movie a robot was presented with another trolley problem, but, this time he managed to +find a way which saved both parties. Without reading into this movie too deep, this illustrates how the early +adoption of the robots ended up saving tons of lives like Spooners. It is only as the technology fully develops +is when we can start to avoid the trolley problem completely. + + +