Journal article
Artificial intelligence, humanistic ethics
- Abstract:
- Ethics is concerned with what it is to live a flourishing life and what it is we morally owe to others. The optimizing mindset prevalent among computer scientists and economists, among other powerful actors, has led to an approach focused on maximizing the fulfilment of human preferences, an approach that has acquired considerable influence in the ethics of AI. But this preference-based utilitarianism is open to serious objections. This essay sketches an alternative, “humanistic” ethics for AI that is sensitive to aspects of human engagement with the ethical often missed by the dominant approach. Three elements of this humanistic approach are outlined: its commitment to a plurality of values, its stress on the importance of the procedures we adopt, not just the outcomes they yield, and the centrality it accords to individual and collective participation in our understanding of human well-being and morality. The essay concludes with thoughts on how the prospect of artificial general intelligence bears on this humanistic outlook.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 177.0KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1162/daed_a_01912
Authors
- Publisher:
- MIT Press
- Journal:
- Daedalus More from this journal
- Volume:
- 151
- Issue:
- 2
- Pages:
- 232-243
- Publication date:
- 2022-05-01
- Acceptance date:
- 2022-05-01
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1548-6192
- ISSN:
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0011-5266
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1260205
- Local pid:
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pubs:1260205
- Deposit date:
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2023-05-11
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- John Tasioulas
- Copyright date:
- 2022
- Rights statement:
- © 2022 by John Tasioulas. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license
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