Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong 1st Edition

by Wendell Wallach (Author), Colin Allen (Author)

15 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0199737970

ISBN-10: 0199737975

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Computers are already approving financial transactions, controlling electrical supplies, and driving trains. Soon, service robots will be taking care of the elderly in their homes, and military robots will have their own targeting and firing protocols. Colin Allen and Wendell Wallach argue that as robots take on more and more responsibility, they must be programmed with moral decision-making abilities, for our own safety. Taking a fast paced tour through the latest thinking about philosophical ethics and artificial intelligence, the authors argue that even if full moral agency for machines is a long way off, it is already necessary to start building a kind of functional morality, in which artificial moral agents have some basic ethical sensitivity. But the standard ethical theories don't seem adequate, and more socially engaged and engaging robots will be needed. As the authors show, the quest to build machines that are capable of telling right from wrong has begun.

Moral Machines is the first book to examine the challenge of building artificial moral agents, probing deeply into the nature of human decision making and ethics.

Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong

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Product Details

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (June 3, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0199737975
ISBN-13: 978-0199737970
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 0.9 x 6.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #531,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #151 in Books > Textbooks > Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence
- #286 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Robotics
- #365 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > AI & Machine Learning > Intelligence & Semantics

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Raises problems but offers no solutions

ByCourtneyon August 24, 2013

Format: Paperback

This book seem to have been infected with the same disease that has ravaged the field of bioethics - the failure to grasp that specialized ethics can only proceed from a general theory of ethics. Without a clear specification of the latter, any attempt to devise ethics for robots, or for physicians, is doomed to incoherence, ambiguity, and confusion. Hence, the main problem with Moral Machines is that it lacks an attempt to reach clarity on human ethics. The book does excel in pointing out the problems with conventional thinking about robot morality, but it fails to describe solutions. The authors' suggestion of having robots acquire morality in the same way that humans do, does not solve the problem. It only guarantees that robots will be as morally confused as we are (e.g. 40% of people would save their dog's life over that of a stranger, according to a recent study at Georgia Regents University). Moreover, this approach fails to select a particular moral tradition in which to raise our robots: Lutheranism? Mormonism? Leftism? Just as we don't want robots to share common confusions about, say, surgical techniques, we don't want them similarly confused about ethics.

This book, which I nonetheless recommend, suffers from the timid, diffident, and tentative tones that afflict most academic writing. The authors seem to be part of an academic community and seek to retain membership by being minimally offensive. Who can fault them? However, this leads to excessively conventional thinking, a disappointing near-term focus, and no real discussion of the morality of hyper-intelligent robots.

If you want a good survey of current thinking on this topic, mundane as this thinking is, this book is a fine choice. If, instead, you prefer attempts to find solutions to the problems addressed in this book I would recommend Artificial Morality: Virtuous Robots for Virtual Games by Peter Danielson, only because it is more concrete. I would also recommend a bold little book called Robot Nation -- Surviving the Greatest Socio-Economic Upheaval of All Time by Stan Neilson, which. despite its title, turns out to be largely about robot morality.

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The best robot ethics text yet

ByKeith A. Abneyon December 19, 2008

Format: Hardcover

Allen and Wallach's Moral Machines is the best text yet in the rapidly expanding field of robot ethics - and their work offers insight into the morals of not only robots, but ourselves as well.

Wallach and Allen examine the strengths and limitations of traditional approaches to ethics, such as deontology and utilitarianism, and the issues that arise in attempting a top-down programming of such rules into a robot. But the history of ethics is replete with controversy over the adequacy of any proposed set of rules - for instance, it might seem logical to switch the track of a runaway trolley that would kill five workers, even if it would thereby kill one person on the other track - switching maximizes utility. But should a doctor then harvest organs from a patient in for a checkup to save five people in the next room needing transplants?

So what should a robot do? An alternative is to attempt a 'bottom up' approach, and teach ethics to robots by trial and error, as we do children. The authors argue that this approach has both technical and rational limitations as well; principles are especially useful in resolving the difficult moral situations we call moral dilemmas. So they argue that a hybrid approach is probably best, and discuss in thought-provoking ways whether robots would need emotions, and how human-like we should desire these robotic agents to be.

Wallach and Allen convincingly argue that even if full moral agency for machines is a long way off, it is already necessary to start instilling into robots a type of functional morality, as robots are already engaged in high-risk situations and are already equipped with lethal weapons (e.g., the Predator drones now flying in Pakistan).

The text is anchored in near-term considerations and hence is light on some of the more far-reaching aspects of robot ethics - for instance, if full human-type ('Kantian') autonomy for robots is possible, should it be allowed? Or should robots be forever relegated to a 'slave morality', so they could never ultimately choose their own life's goals - lest they be harmful to humans? But the failure to engage in these more long-term debates simply underlines the near-term strengths of this text. For those wondering (or worried) about moral questions involving robots over the next decade, this is a must-read.

P.S. They also have a nice blog with updates: [...]

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You need this book.

ByRoger Gayon December 8, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Takes the reader through an intro to ethics and experiments in AI ethics and robotics. It's a relatively new field, stretching to the idea expressed in the title; building machines that make moral decisions and act accordingly. So if you're an programmer looking for a cookbook with a quick start guide, this won't immediately feel like your subject. On the other hand, if you're an engineer looking for the cutting edge, you can find it in this book. If you're a student, researcher, or lone wolf innovator, you might be the one to take the next important step. If you're a software developer or planning to be one, I think you should read this to be prepared for discussions that will inevitably arise during your career.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

This is an outstanding work. the author is dead-on ...

This is an outstanding work. the author is dead-on when describing machine ethics as the ultimate di-section of ethical discourse in human terms.

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