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SOCIAL AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF ROBOTS AND AI
Hendrik Kempt
Social and Cultural Studies of Robots and AI
Series Editors
Kathleen Richardson
Faculty of Computing, Engineering, and Media
De Montfort University
Leicester, UK
Cathrine Hasse
Danish School of Education
Aarhus University
Copenhagen, Denmark
Teresa Heffernan
Department of English
St. Mary’s University
Halifax, NS, Canada
This is a groundbreaking series that investigates the ways in which the
“robot revolution” is shifting our understanding of what it means to be
human. With robots filling a variety of roles in society—from soldiers
to loving companions—we can see that the second machine age is
already here. This raises questions about the future of labor, war, our
environment, and even human-to-human relationships.
Chatbots
and the Domestication
of AI
A Relational Approach
Hendrik Kempt
Institute of Applied Ethics
RWTH Aachen
Aachen, Germany
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such
names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for
general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa-
tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither
the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been
made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps
and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
“πάντων χρημάτων μšτρoν’ ¥νθρωπoν εναι,
‘τîν μν Ôντων æς στι, τîν δ μὴ Ôντων æς oÙκ στιν”—Protagoras.
“The human is the ultimate measure of all things, of the existence of things
that exist, as well as the non-existence of things that do not
exist.” —Protagoras
Acknowledgments
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ix
x PRAISE FOR CHATBOTS AND THE DOMESTICATION OF AI
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.1.1 Smart Fridges and Other Reifications 2
1.1.2 What’s to Come? 5
References 6
2 Methods 7
2.1 Method and Orientation 7
2.2 Concepts and Conceptual Analysis 9
2.3 Description and Evaluation of Technologies 10
2.4 Distinctions and Discovery in Philosophy of Technology 13
2.5 Reaches and Limits of Philosophy 15
2.6 Moral Philosophy, Morality, Ethics 16
2.7 AI Ethics 18
2.8 Conclusion 19
References 20
xi
xii CONTENTS
7 Conclusions 175
7.1 Thinking Forward 175
7.2 Acting Forward 178
Reference 179
Index 181
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
1.1 Introduction
When considering prognoses given about the potential of certain tech-
nologies and technological trends, we most often remember the outra-
geous misjudgments rather than the precise assessments and are most
likely witnessing similar false predictions these days—unbeknownst of
their falsity. From IBM’s president Thomas Watson stating that the world
will not need more than five computers in 1943 to promises about the
various announcements of the immediate advent of self-driving cars on
our streets within a few years, the list of wrong predictions is long.
Considering the complexity of reasons for certain technologies to
become ubiquitous elements of many people’s everyday life, one would
be inclined to refrain from those prognoses altogether. Yet, those prog-
noses themselves may function as self-fulfilling prophecies, by inspiring
the public to think of a technology a certain way, thereby opening or
closing minds and markets for certain devices.
Additionally to these self-fulfilling prophecies, unexpected break-
throughs in technological development, applicability, and compatibility,
societal trends and ethical restrictions, economic (in-)stability and invest-
ments, politically forced acceleration or deceleration, successful marketing
campaigns, or simply luck all take their fair share in the rise and fall of
technological standards, applications, and devices.
References
Duffy, Brian, and Gina Joue. 2000. Intelligent Robots: The Question
of Embodiment. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.
59.6703. Accessed February 11, 2020.
Guzman, Andrea L. (ed.). 2018. Human-Machine Communication. Rethinking
Communication, Technology, and Ourselves. New York: Peter Lang.
Leviathan, Yaniv, and Yossi Matias. 2018. Google Duplex: An AI System
for Accomplishing Real-World Tasks Over the Phone. Google AI
blog. https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natural-con
versation.html. Accessed February 11, 2020.
Stoytchev, Alexander. 2009. Some Basic Principles of Developmental Robotics.
IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development 1 (2): 1–9.
Zhao, Shanyang. 2006. Humanoid Social Robots as a Medium of Communica-
tion. New Media And Society 8 (3): 401–419. https://doi.org/10.1177/146
1444806061951. Accessed June 6, 2020.
CHAPTER 2
Methods
artificial speakers. Luckily enough, the subject of this endeavor, the philos-
ophy of artificial intelligence, is an active and established field within the
philosophy of technology, with some hard cores and soft edges. In this
field, one way to divide up the philosophical approaches to AI in two main
areas: the one discusses the prerequisites of AI by discussing philosophical
concepts within the context of AI, and the other discusses the practical
consequences of applied AI. These areas are not discretely distinct, as
some theories in the former influence judgments in the latter.
The concepts of “intelligence” or “agency,” the problem of artificial
minds and mental states, the question when machines deserve the attribu-
tion of “agency” are all prerequisite philosophical discussions that shape
the way artificial intelligence is perceived. The relationship between tech-
nological advancements and those concepts are often interdependent, as
technological progress can influence our conceptions of agency or arti-
ficial minds. However, as those are conceptual questions, they could be
answered from the armchair. It is not even so much a “decision” when
we consider consciousness to be achieved or when agency ought to be
attributed to a machine, even though those are inherently normative
questions as well; ideally, the stronger argument and a more coherent
organization of the invested conceptual inventory prevails.
The other focus lies on the consequences of AI. These consequences
usually pose ethical questions of how humans want to create their society
in the age of unprecedented computing power and autonomous agents.
From the question of sophisticated robots disrupting labor markets, over
mass surveillance courtesy of self-learning and data-gathering algorithms
to controversies of relating to robots in emotionally significant ways, the
revolution of AI will affect every person one way or another.
Both parts are sometimes disregarded as rehashing older philosoph-
ical debates within the context of an emerging technology that is less
revolutionary or problematic than presented in such debates (Nyholm
and Smids 2016; Beard 2019). And while some applications of AI are
certainly not revolutionary or deserving of a subsection of philosophy of
technology (since there is no “philosophy of airplanes” either), the poten-
tial to affect most people’s lives in previously unseens ways is certainly a
reason to consider some of them separately.
To fully appreciate this potentiality, interdisciplinary discussions from
a big variety of disciplines, from philosophers, engineers, sociologists,
to cognitive scientists, business leaders, and lawmakers are required. For
such debates to take off, a shared understanding of everyone’s methods
2 METHODS 9
T HERE was not very much to discuss when Lane did get to
Deanery Street. Certain inexplicable things had happened for
which, at present, there seemed no accounting. Somebody seemed
to be doing what he liked with this wonderful safe, abstracting and
replacing property when he chose, without hindrance, in a house full
of people. One novel feature on this occasion was the total absence
of finger-prints. They had been carefully rubbed out.
Morrice seemed greatly perturbed, as was quite natural under the
circumstances; but Lane noticed that there was a considerable
difference in his demeanour on this occasion from the last, when he
had insisted, with some display of temper, upon the certainty of
Croxton’s guilt.
Lane had been a little nettled at the time—at the cocksure attitude
of this hard-headed man of business who, however great his
success in his own particular line, did not seem to possess a very
great logical faculty, and could not forbear putting a rather pertinent
question.
“Are you quite as sure as you were, Mr. Morrice, that your late
secretary is the thief?”
Morrice shrugged his shoulders. It was easy to see that he was in
a subdued mood; there was no fear of further explosions to-day. “I
admit there are complications in this infernal business that perplex
one extremely. But I don’t think that, so far, I can see any particular
reasons for altering my previous opinion. You can’t get over the
insurmountable fact that Croxton and myself were the only two
persons who knew the secret of the mechanism. He may not be the
actual purloiner, I admit; he may have passed on his knowledge to a
confederate with whom he shares the spoil.”
Lane let fall only a few words in answer to these observations, but
they were very significant ones.
“Don’t forget, Mr. Morrice, that you lost the original key or
memorandum, as you call it, of the workings.”
But the financier was an obstinate person, as many strong-minded
men are. When he had once formed a theory, he did not give it up in
a hurry.
“Only mislaid, I expect,” he answered, but it was easy to see his
tone was not quite so confident as usual. “I shouldn’t be surprised if
it turned up at any moment.”
But Lane hastened to put on a damper at once. “And if it did, I
don’t see that it would help you so very much. You couldn’t possibly
know in what other hands it might have been during the interval.”
The financier had no wish to engage in further argument with this
calm, self-possessed man, whose merciless logic made such short
work of anything in the nature of a positive opinion.
“It doesn’t seem to matter much what I think,” he cried with a slight
return of his old petulance. “And perhaps it would be wiser to admit
at once that I don’t possess your capacity for weighing facts and
drawing deductions from them. I should like to know one thing, Mr.
Lane—does what has just happened convey any new suggestions to
you, throw any fresh light upon the situation?”
He did not gauge the detective as accurately as one might have
expected from a man with his wide knowledge of human nature, or
he would never have put this question in the hope of getting a
satisfactory answer. Whatever theory or theories might be forming in
his mind, and there could be no doubt that it was working at full-
speed all the time, and readjusting itself to every fresh turn of events,
Lane would make no disclosures till he judged the time was ripe.
He shook his head with great gravity: “We work very slowly, Mr.
Morrice; we come to conclusions with equal slowness, in our
profession. I dare say to a keen business man like yourself who plan
your coups with lightning rapidity, make and clinch a deal of many
thousands in a few minutes, we must seem dull, plodding fellows.
But you must remember that most of our time we are working
underground where very little light penetrates. What has happened
to-day may suggest a new line of thought to me, but I have not yet
had time to digest its significance. It will want a great deal of patient
thinking over before it bears any fruit.”
With this the rather impatient financier had to be content. He was
beginning to have a certain respect for the firm, self-reliant attitude of
the detective, who did not appear to be in the least overawed by
Morrice’s wealth and position. And he had a shrewd idea that, in his
own particular and less remunerative line, Lane had a brain not
greatly inferior to his own. They worked in different directions with a
vast disproportion between the rewards attending their efforts.
Morrice had the instinct of moneymaking, Lane the instinct of
unravelling criminal mysteries. Perhaps in the bare fact of intellectual
equipment there was not much to choose between them.
As the detective passed through the hall on his way out, he found
Rosabelle waiting for him. She was of course cognizant of what had
happened, and on Lane’s arrival her first idea had been to be
present at the interview between him and her uncle. But on second
thoughts she had decided to speak to the detective alone.
She still loved her uncle very dearly; she must always do that for
all the kindness and affection he had lavished on her. But it was
impossible there should not be a little secret antagonism between
the two in the circumstances. He appeared to be firmly convinced of
Richard Croxton’s guilt, she as firmly convinced of his innocence.
She was a fair-minded girl, and she was prepared to make every
allowance for Morrice’s attitude, but as there did not seem any
common ground on which they could meet when the matter was
under discussion, she judged it best to speak of it to him as little as
possible.
She put to him practically the same question that her uncle had
done: “Well, Mr. Lane, what do you think of the new development?
Does it reveal anything to you?”
That wary and cautious person shook his head. He had taken a
great liking to Rosabelle. Her staunch devotion to her lover had
appealed to the finer chords of his nature; for although he never
allowed sentiment to sway him unduly, he was by no means destitute
of that human quality. But not even for Rosabelle’s sake would he
depart greatly from that cautious attitude which was habitual to him.
“It is a strange development, Miss Sheldon, but I have not yet had
time to think it over. I am going back to my office to do so, and the
thinking over will take some time.”
Her charming face fell. “You cannot see in it even the remotest
thing that tells in favour of Richard Croxton?”
The eyes were very sad, the voice was very pleading. Should he
give the unhappy girl one little crumb of comfort? For a little time he
hesitated, then compassion got the better of prudence and of his iron
reserve.
“I will just say this, Miss Sheldon, and no more. It is becoming a
less impossible task to clear him than I at first thought; but please
don’t be too jubilant—there are still very formidable difficulties in the
way.”
A radiant light came into the charming face, although her eyes
filled with tears and she clasped her hands nervously together. Her
voice trembled as she spoke.
“You have put new life into me with those words, Mr. Lane. I know
you quite well by now, and I am sure that, coming from you, they
mean much.”
Poor Lane began to think he had made a bit of a mistake in
departing from his usual caution, in being moved by the pleading
attitude of the girl into giving her this small crumb of comfort. That
was the worst of women—they were so impressionable and
optimistic, or pessimistic, as the case might be. Their moods were
never equable: they were either at the height of elation or in the
depth of despair.
“Please do not let me excite false hopes, Miss Sheldon,” he
hastened to say. “Remember, I have told you there are great
difficulties in the way. Until we are on much firmer ground I would
beg that you do not repeat my words to Mr. Croxton.”
But she did not give any answer to this request, and he knew that
for all practical purposes he might have held his peace. Of course,
she would post off to her lover as soon as she could get away, and
infect him with her own optimism. Well, he was loath to confide too
much in the most hard-headed and sceptical man; he had only
himself to blame for having been over-confidential with a member of
the emotional sex.
Later on in the day Rosabelle carried out his prediction; she made
up her mind to pay a visit to Petersham, to hearten her lover with a
recital of those words which she was convinced meant so much,
coming from a man of Lane’s cautious temperament.
Morrice had left the house shortly after the detective’s departure.
The two women would have lunched alone together but for the
unexpected arrival of young Archie Brookes, who was pressed to
stay for the meal.
Rosabelle was very sensitive to impressions, and, for so young a
girl, particularly observant. It struck her that during the progress of
the luncheon the young man seemed rather distrait and preoccupied.
Two or three times he answered at random, and once Mrs. Morrice
called out to him sharply, “I don’t think you are listening to what I am
saying, Archie.” At that rebuke he seemed to pull himself together,
but the girl was sure his thoughts were far away from her aunt’s light
chatter.
Presently aunt and nephew, to call him what Rosabelle, ignorant of
Lane’s discoveries, still believed him to be, went up to Mrs. Morrice’s
boudoir. There was nothing unusual in this; it was a frequent custom
when the young man called or lunched at the house.
Rosabelle thought she would start for Petersham at once, making
her journey there as usual in a taxi. She always had plenty of money
for her needs, as Morrice supplemented her own little modest
income of a hundred a year with a very generous allowance.
As she went upstairs to her own room to make ready for her
expedition, she passed her aunt’s boudoir, the door of which stood
slightly ajar. It was a rather unusual circumstance, for when the two
were closeted together Rosabelle had noticed that it was nearly
always closed. This time it had evidently been forgotten by both.
She was not a girl who in ordinary circumstances would have
condescended to listen at doors, but she could not help hearing
words that startled and puzzled her.
Archie was speaking in a voice of great excitement and emotion.
“But if I don’t have it I am ruined. It means that I cannot face the
disgrace—there is only one alternative——” His voice had by now
sunk almost to a whisper, and she could not catch what followed.
She stood rooted to the spot. The young man’s preoccupied
manner at the lunch-table was accounted for. He was in some deep
trouble from which he was begging Mrs. Morrice to rescue him.
She heard her aunt reply in tones that were half angry, half tearful.
“How many times have you threatened me with that, and I have
yielded. I have half ruined myself for you; it cannot go on much
longer.”
Suddenly she felt that she was listening to a conversation not
intended for her ears, and resolutely turned away and went to her
own room. For the present she would say nothing, not even to Dick,
of what she had heard by the purest accident. But she thought over it
all the way on the long drive to Petersham. Was there yet another
tragedy going on in the Morrice household, and was her placid-
looking, dignified aunt the centre of it?
And what was that alternative which Archie Brookes had described
in a whisper she could not catch? Had he threatened to destroy
himself if his request were not acceded to? And what did Mrs.
Morrice mean by saying she had half ruined herself for him?
CHAPTER XIV
AN ALARMING INTERRUPTION