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@ -5,8 +5,8 @@ that we are still discussing concerning self driving cars. The protagonist Detec |
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has an almost unhealthy amount of distrust towards |
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robots. In the movie, a robot decided to save Spooner's life over a 12 year old girl in a car accident. |
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This ignites the famous ethical debate of the trolley problem, but, now with artificial intelligence. |
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The question boils down to this: are machines capable of making moral decisions. The |
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surface level answer from the movie is **no** when it presents Spooner's car crash antidote. |
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The debate boils down to this: are machines capable of making moral decisions. The |
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surface level answer from the movie is presented as **no** when Spooner's presents car crash antidote. |
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This question parallels the discussion that we are currently having with self driving cars. |
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When a self driving car is presented with two options which result in the loss of life, |
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what should it choose? |
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@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ When surveyed, most people say that they would prefer to have self driving cars |
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approach towards the trolley problem. A utilitarian approach would try to minimize the |
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total amount of harm. MIT made a neat [website](http://moralmachine.mit.edu/) where it presents you with a |
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bunch of "trolley problems" where you have to decide who dies. At the end of the survey the |
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website presents you with a list of observed preferences you made with the trolley problem. |
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website presents you with a list of observed preferences you made when deciding who's life was more important to save. |
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The purpose of the trolley problem is merely to ponder what decision a self driving car |
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should make when **all** of its alternatives are depleted. |
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@ -52,32 +52,32 @@ consequentialism to examine this problem. |
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![Moral Machine](media/selfDrivingCars/moralMachine6.png) |
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Self driving cars are expected to reduce car accidents by 90% by cutting out human error. If people |
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Self driving cars are expected to reduce car accidents by 90% by eliminating human error. If people |
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decide to not use self driving cars due to the utilitarian moral engine, we run the |
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risk of actually loosing more lives. Some people have actually argued that since |
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artificial intelligence is incapable of making moral decisions, they should actually take |
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artificial intelligence is incapable of making moral decisions, they should take |
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no action at all when there is a situation which will always results in the loss of life. |
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In the frame of the trolley problem, |
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it is best for the artificial intelligence to not pull the lever. I will argue that |
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it is best for self driving cars to not make ethical |
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decisions because, it would result in the highest adoption rate of self driving cars which in |
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the long run would save the most lives. The likelihood that a car is actually presented with |
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decisions because, it would result in the highest adoption rate of self driving cars. This would end up |
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saving the most lives in the long run. Plus, the likelihood that a car is actually presented with |
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a trolley problem is pretty slim. |
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The discussion over the moral decisions a car has to make is almost fruitless. It turns out |
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that humans are not even good at making moral decisions in emergency situations. When we make rash decisions |
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influenced by anxiety, we are heavily influenced by prejudices and self motives. Despite our own shortcomings when it |
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comes to decision making, that does not mean that we can not do better with self driving cars. However, |
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we need to realize that it actually is the mass adoption of self driving cars which will save the most lives, not |
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the moral engine which we program the cars with. We cannot let the moral engine of the self driving |
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car get in the way of adoption. |
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we need to realize that it is the mass adoption of self driving cars which will save the most lives, not |
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the moral engine which we program the cars with. We can not let the moral engine of the self driving |
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cars get in the way of adoption. |
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The conclusion I made parallels Spooner's problem with robots in the movie *I Robot*. Spooner was so mad at the robots for |
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saving his own life rather than the girl that he never realize that if it was not for the robots, neither of them would |
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The conclusion that I made parallels Spooner's problem with robots in the movie *I Robot*. Spooner was so mad at the robots for |
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saving his own life rather than the girl's, he never realized that if it was not for the robots, neither of them would |
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have survived that car crash. Does that mean we can't do better than not pulling the lever? Well... not exactly. |
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Near the end of the movie a robot was presented with another trolley problem, but, this time he managed to |
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find a way which saved both parties. Without reading into this movie too deep, this illustrates how the early |
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adoption of the robots ended up saving tons of lives like Spooners. It is only as the technology fully develops |
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adoption of artificial intelligence ended up saving tons of lives like Spooners. It is only when the technology fully develops |
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is when we can start to avoid the trolley problem completely. |
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