F.O.

E Project Report

● What is Ethical Value ?

When the term ethical value is heard we can determine based on the values they
put the degree of importance for something. We can further define ethical values
by the aim of determining what actions are best to do in given/ certain scenarios
or we can at least attempt to describe the value of different actions.

● Article Introduction:

The article “Ethics of Artificial Intelligence” is written by Nick Bostrom(Future of

Humanity Institute) and Eliezer Yudkowsky(Machine Intelligence Research
Institute). In this article they have addressed a pressing issue that when
machines are created and given an ability to think it tends to raise a host of
ethical issues. These questions generally intend to stop the harm of any ethical
entity and also the moral status of the machines. This entire article has been split
into sections and each section represents the different sectors in which problems
are faced regarding the AI approach of humanity and the involvement of Ethics in
it.

● Important Ethical Values :

○ Ethics in Machine Learning and Other Domain-Specific AI
Algorithms:

In this section the author uses an example of a bank using AI algorithms

to sanction the loans to the applicants. Now with the help of this example
the author has pointed out many ethical values which should be
considered if the support of AI has to be taken.

The values demonstrated in this section of the article are:

1. Responsibility
2. Transparency
3. Auditability
4. Incorruptibility
 5. Predictability
6. No Suffering of innocent victims

Now, we shall discuss these properties in a brief overview here to get a

better understanding of what the author is trying to tell us.

1. Responsibility:

Responsibility means you do the things you are supposed to do

and accept the results of your actions. This is a value which is
found in all the human beings and it is very reasonable that if we
are leaning towards the AI algorithms to do our tasks then they
should be responsible for the actions they take, but when compare
this idea to the actual reality no one in their sane mind would ever
say that a machine or it’s algorithm is to be blamed for if any
actions taken by machine is wrong. So accounting for the
responsibility is a big problem and certainly a very big value that is
found missing in the concept of AI algorithms to run the machines.
If we talk about the example which was taken in the article about
the AI algorithm deciding whom to sanction the loan and whom to
not, we can see that if it for some reason rejects a very capable
candidate for the loan and that rejection causes severe actions in
the future the responsibility for that actions is not taken by anyone.
This hurts the social functions of the society.

2. Transparency:

To be transparent means to share your thoughts and opinions

honestly and respectfully. Now that we know what transparency
means we can imagine applying the transparency in machine
learning and AI algorithms. If we continue with the above described
example we can see that if the algorithm decides to reject a
particular loan applicant on the basis of the pre described poor
region that applicant is living in would be very unfair. But not letting
the applicant know that these were the criterias on which they were
rejected is the worst thing to do. Here the concept of transparency
has to be followed by the machine learning algorithm and let the
people know about all the thought processes of the machine and all
the valid points and reasons for rejecting/approving the loan
process. If an AI algorithm is made in such a way that it promotes
 transparency then and then we can say that a very ethically
important moral value has been satisfied here.

3. Auditability:

An investigation into how well, or poorly, a company or organization

conforms to the ethical standards of its industry or society in
general. Being Auditable is an important ethical value as well. The
authors of the article have shown a great concern about the
Auditability of the machine and their algorithms. They can run on
certain set criterias and can’t go outside of their way to do
something. For example a loan sanctioning algorithm can’t solve
the problem which is faced by the algorithm to collect and manage
the records of the flow of the money even though both of them have
the same field. This means they can’t judge each other’s actions
which overlooks the fact of investigations of the actions if or not
they are ethical. There is a need for the existence of algorithms that
specifically judges the action of other algorithms from a point of
view of ethics so as to ensure that auditability is being taken care of
even when the work is done by machines.

4. Incorruptibility:

The act of not being easily manipulated by other people and doing
what is ethically right is known as incorruptibility. If we talk about AI
algorithms it is extremely important for them to not be manipulated
by anyone or any given circumstances. Let us understand the
above statement with an example that is provided by the author. A
machine vision system to scan airline luggage for bombs must be
robust against human adversaries deliberately searching for
exploitable flaws in the algorithm—
For example, a shape that, placed next to a pistol in one’s luggage,
would neutralize recognition of it.

This ethical value according to author is not mentioned in any of the

machine learning journals as they are only interested in scaling and
making profit off the AI algorithms and simply don’t care if an
 algorithm is following any ethical values or not. It becomes
pressingly important to follow all these values in order for the AI
algorithms to be truly called successful.

5. Predictability:

the state of knowing what something is like, when something will

happen, etc. is known as predictability. The authors have explained
this term by giving the example of a stare decisis in which a if a law
is made during the previous case then that law has to be followed
by the judge if there is a new similarly case. The problem it creates
is that it raises a dilemma in the programmers mind that why do we
need to bind the future with the past when the technologies are
always evolving and changing. But according to the authors when
we make an AI based algorithm we need to keep in mind that it
need not be optimizing but it has to be predictable so that people
can work around the AI algorithms and do the things accordingly. If
people know the general direction in which they are supposed to
work, then for example if people know the criteria to apply for the
loan to the AI algorithm then the chances of the deserved candidate
to be rejected goes down and it ultimately helps in betterment of the
system. Therefore there is a pressing need for the machine
learning algorithms and AI algorithms to be predictable.

6. No Suffering of innocent victims:

This is pretty much self explanatory, according to the authors if we

apply all the criterias and ethical values which are imposed on
humans performing the social function or action then there would
be minimum to no suffering of the innocent victims. Which is again
a good sign for the AI algorithms as they will be more ethical and
acceptable by the people in the modern world.
○ Artificial General Intelligence

According to the author Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is good but we

also need another artificial intelligence whose sole purpose is to keep a
look on the AGI system and not deem it good until it is really good both in
terms of working efficiency and in terms of ethical values that are being
hold by it.

Another ethical value that the authors want to highlight is the discipline
values of AI ethics which must be followed. Ethical cognition must be
taken as a subject matter of engineering and also the verification of the
safety of the system becomes a greater challenge.

○ Machines with Moral Status

In this authors are worried about the occurrence of novel ethical questions
because artificial minds tend to have different properties than human and
animal minds. Similarly, the artificial mind is a product of the human mind
but capable enough to make decisions and it is these decisions whose
ethical values need to be carefully evaluated. We must consider how
these novel properties would affect the moral status of artificial minds and
what it would mean to respect the moral status of such exotic minds.

○ Minds with Exotic Properties

In this the author says the extent to which our primitive ethics which we
have made may or may not be applicable to all the situations which we will
be facing and showing a rigidity inorder to not accept the hypothetical
futuristic condition will be ethically incorrect. The authors suggest that we
need to adjust our precepts according to the situation we are facing. By
this, we are not making any controversial claim about moral relativism, but
merely highlighting the commonsensical point that context is relevant to
the application of ethics.

○ Superintelligence

The authors end the article with a very strong support to the discipline of
machine ethics as the ultimate aim why we spend millions and millions of
 money, invest a lot of time in order to make the machine, machine learning
algorithms and AI algorithms to be better than humans, faster than
humans, stronger than humans and more trustworthy than humans. But all
this must be done only and only if we make the machines and all the
algorithms understand a simple fact that they have to seek
human-superior rather than considering human equal.

● Understanding With Example:

Let us first understand the real world problem that is being faced. In today's
modern world there are many search engines which exist and it doesn’t matter
which one we choose, we can just go there and type about the world’s prominent
leaders and it will most likely show all the male leaders ignoring the women
leaders who have also played a very important role in the past and are playing a
crucial role in the present as well. Another example can be searching about the
school girl in the search engine we will mostly find the women sexualised in
school girl uniform rather than finding the original images of innocent school girls
but instead of this if we search school boys we will find all the normal images of
the school boys and little to very few would be adult male in sexualised school
uniforms. This problem is faced because the search engine is designed in such a
manner that it shows the most clicked and the most commonly looked for items
on the top ignoring the ethical impact and the value it holds. It will blunty ignore
the women freedom fighters unless searched so.

● AI Based Solution.

We can now create a hypothetical situation where we can make an AI

which governs the search results as well as respects the ethical values
which are to be held while doing any task. We can simply create an AI
system which governs the search result of the search engine. To solve the
issues of showing a certainly dominated result we can change the criteria
on which the results are being shown. Rather than most clicked we can
show them most anticipated and common results and if those results are
not what the user want they can always give more specific keywords to
get to the result they are looking for this maintains the predictability of
the model as well as it makes the model i.e. the AI algorithm makes more
responsible to not hurt any human kind emotions.

If furthermore tweakings are to be done in this and the results are shown
on the basis of the day to day usage of an individual than the process of
 transparency will also increase as the user will know that it is their daily
usage consumption which led to a so and so search result and also the AI
system will not be corrupted as everyone will get a personalized search.
If the searches are made for completely new devices which have no
consumer history then the above described method of logical and most
commonly anticipated outcome should be shown.

When such AI is created the ethical value of Auditability is also solved as

since it is no longer a normal search engine but an AI driven search
engine it will constantly keep an check on the searches that are going
around constantly keep learning and adapting to the searches and
searching pattern of the user in order to both satisfy the user as well as
not commit and unethical actions which might hurt a group of people. It will
also keep a check on the content that is both viewed and uploaded so as
to apply a profanity filter to the certain content which is either taken from
an adult site or has blood splatter in it so as to keep the children safe from
it. Also heavy security will be imposed so as the problems of data breach
will not happen and it solves the problem of privacy protection.

● Conclusion:

Hence we can conclude that AI and ML algorithms as the time goes by will be an
inseparable part of human lives. So they are going to be this crucial in the
upcoming time, we will have to morally ethically train these algorithms to follow
and try to think like human brains because it is easy for our brain to distinguish
between right and wrong but for machines it becomes difficult and a challenging
task to do. Therefore, if created and implemented in the right way, all the ethical
values together with the machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithm can
take us a very long way ahead in the future and possibly make co-existence of
humans and machines together in peace a true thing. Hence, The ethical
integration of artificial intelligence with human values and emotions will form the
foundation of future artificial intelligence.