Technological delegation and moral responsibility in the era of Artificial Intelligence
With the development of artificial intelligence technology,it has become an objective fact that the computer software acts on behalf of humans or accepts entrusted tasks from humans.However,it is still too early to believe that artificial intelligence has become a reliable agent for human.Artificial intelligence meets some of the characteristics as an agent indeed,but it is still the programmable machine in nature.It has neither inherent intention nor obligation to pursue the interests and goals of the human on its own initiative.There will be many technical and moral risks in the development and application of artificial intelligence.And it is necessary for human to evaluate the risks and benefits involved carefully.Therefore,compared with the term of agency,the term of technological delegation can accurately describe the special human-machine relationships formed by artificial intelligence acting on behalf of humans.According to Collins,most of human actions are the polymorphic actions which are the behavioral coordinate systems composed of conscious and unconscious behaviors.In these behaviors,some,also known as the mimeomorphic actions,can be stylized,formalized,programmed into the computer language.Thus,they can be continuously replicated and accurately reproduced by the machines.At present,most computer softwares can be delegated to carry out the mimeomorphic actions.And some of them can be delegated to carry out several different mimeomorphic actions simultaneously through multiple rounds of negotiation and dialogue with human actors and other software.As several mimeomorphic actions are combined into a behavior group,the scope of delegation for artificial intelligence is also gradually expanding.It can be seen that artificial intelligence can only delegate to carry out a part of the entire behavioral plan for human,rather than the behavioral plan itself.This also determines the scope and limitation of technological delegation.Through the technological delegation,humans and artificial intelligence have formed the special human-machine joint actors,which have had important and complex impacts on morality.Firstly,technological delegation will produce long-distance actions.The initial actors are unable to experience the consequences of their actions directly and may attempt to deny those moral responsibility.Secondly,technological delegation also brings about the anonymity problems.The problems of anonymity will pose a challenge to the attribution of moral responsibility.Thirdly,technological delegation to artificial intelligence will also facilitate the emergence of virtual activities,thus leading to the virtual ethical issues.Finally,the revocability and substitutability of technological delegation will weaken the position of artificial intelligence in ethical practices.The moral responsibility for technological delegation will be attributed to the in-itial actors for their improper or excessive delegation.For the reasons mentioned above,a responsibility gap where no one is responsible will emerge.In the process of the technological delegation,since moral good and evil come from the practices of human-machine cooperation,the corresponding moral responsibility should also attribute to the human-machine joint responsible entity.The joint responsibility can attribute the aggregation effects with moral significance to the human-machine joint actors.But the problem is that it will become an excuse for everyone to deny his own responsibility in language games.Therefore,it is necessary to allocate human-machine joint re-sponsibility by combining the theories of action responsibility and social role responsibility.Action responsibility can divide the joint re-sponsibility into the individual responsibility that belongs to every(quasi)actors,based on the degree of participation of different(quasi)actors in delegating practices and their contributions to the final outcomes.And the social role responsibility requires the(qua-si)actors to actively create their own social roles in delegating practices and in the process of interacting with other(quasi)actors,by taking positive responsibility for the consequences of their actions.
technological delegationmoral responsibilityjoint responsibilityaction responsibilitysocial role responsibility
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