Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Moral Machines

Be sure to pick up a copy of the new book by Wendell Wallach and Colin Allen, Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong. The book explores the ethical issues related to the creation of artificial moral agents. Such issues are raised in an article in today's New York Times Science Times: "A Soldier, Taking Orders From Its Ethical Judgment Center" which mentions the book and its authors. Also, check out the New Scientist online article: "Six ways to build robots that do humans no harm." Wendell is a lecturer and consultant at Yale University's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics the head of its Technology & Ethics study group and is a friend of the IS group. Colin is a Professor of History & Philosophy of Science and of Cognitive Science at Indiana University. BUY THEIR BOOK and check out the Moral Machines Blog.

1 comment:

Simon Levy said...

My Department recently hosted a talk by Georgia Tech's Ron Arkin, who is featured in the NY Times article. For me the most exciting (and disturbing) thing about Ron's talk was learning that these issues -- robot soldiers making ethical decisions -- are not the stuff of speculative science fiction: they are issues with which the military is struggling today and which are becoming more important as warfare becomes more automated. Ron, who is a great speaker and a lot of fun to talk to, works with ethicists and attorneys to figure out policy on these issues.