4th Year Hon. Mention: A Morality Module for Machines

COGS 4901, Seminar in Cognitive Science. CD: Jacob Beck.

Abstract

 Is artificial morality possible? Can we create AI with the capacity for moral decision-making and do so in an ethical way? If so, what model presents the best potential for ethical moral decision-making? In an exceptionally well-researched and thoughtful report, this writer explores the impediments to creating “artificial moral (ro)bots,” including current perspectives about such impediments and how to overcome them, the models proposed to date, and which of those models (the “evolutionary paradigm”) is best positioned to resolve the impediments and move towards artificial moral decision-making. The assessment of the current models for artificial moral AI is thorough and sound, while the writer’s proposal for an independent algorithm “that may be implemented in a diverse range of automata, effectively converting these machines into artificial moral agents,”is both innovative and exciting. The writer demonstrates an exceptional knowledge of the field combined with a creative approach to AI and moral decision-making.