Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top
AI & SOCIETY
Published in: AI & SOCIETY 4/2017

28-09-2016 | Open Forum

On the promotion of safe and socially beneficial artificial intelligence

Author: Seth D. Baum

Published in: AI & SOCIETY | Issue 4/2017

Log in

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config
loading …

Abstract

This paper discusses means for promoting artificial intelligence (AI) that is designed to be safe and beneficial for society (or simply “beneficial AI”). The promotion of beneficial AI is a social challenge because it seeks to motivate AI developers to choose beneficial AI designs. Currently, the AI field is focused mainly on building AIs that are more capable, with little regard to social impacts. Two types of measures are available for encouraging the AI field to shift more toward building beneficial AI. Extrinsic measures impose constraints or incentives on AI researchers to induce them to pursue beneficial AI even if they do not want to. Intrinsic measures encourage AI researchers to want to pursue beneficial AI. Prior research focuses on extrinsic measures, but intrinsic measures are at least as important. Indeed, intrinsic factors can determine the success of extrinsic measures. Efforts to promote beneficial AI must consider intrinsic factors by studying the social psychology of AI research communities.
previous article A formal account of opportunism based on the situation calculus
next article Machine humour: examples from Turing test experiments

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe




 

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now
Footnotes
1
For perspectives on near-term AI impacts, see, e.g., Lin et al. (2011). For strong AI, see e.g., Eden et al. (2013).
 
2
On the extrinsic/intrinsic distinction, see e.g., Markowitz and Sharif (2012:246) and references therein.
 
3
See Sotala and Yampolskiy (2014, Sect. 3) for a review in the context of strong AI. Russell et al. (2015) also discuss a range of predominantly extrinsic measures. A notable exception to the focus on extrinsic measures is Russell’s emphasis on shifting “how practitioners define what they do” (Bohannon 2015:252).
 
4
Incentives can nonetheless provoke significant backlash. For example, in the United States, environmentalists have long pursued incentive-based policies such as taxes on pollution in order to appeal to industry interests that do not want constraints, yet industry has been largely successful at avoiding these incentive-based policies.
 
5
Incentives for completed technologies are less relevant for AIs that could be catastrophic because there may be no penalty that could adequately compensate for damages and, in the extreme case, no one alive to process the penalty.
 
6
Conversely, when beneficial AI groups are identified, rewards are to be applied, though this is less of a challenge because AI groups are likely to seek rewards, not dodge them.
 
7
Social sanctions are an extrinsic measure, specifically an incentive using a social penalty, though they can also cultivate certain social norms.
 
Literature
Armstrong S, Bostrom N, Shulman C (2016) Racing to the precipice: a model of artificial intelligence development. AI & Soc 31(2):201–206CrossRef
Baum SD, Goertzel B, Goertzel TG (2011) How long until human-level AI? Results from an expert assessment. Technol Forecast Soc Change 78(1):185–195CrossRef
Borrie J (2014) Humanitarian reframing of nuclear weapons and the logic of a ban. Int Aff 90(3):625–646CrossRef
Cooter RD (2000) Three effects of social norms on law: expression, deterrence, and internalization. Oregon Law Rev 79:1–22
Deci EL (1971) Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. J Pers Soc Psychol 18:105–115CrossRef
Dickerson CA, Thibodeau R, Aronson E, Miller D (1992) Using cognitive dissonance to encourage water conservation. J Appl Soc Psychol 22:841–854CrossRef
Eden AH, Moor JH, Soraker JH, Steinhart E (2013) Singularity hypotheses: a scientific and philosophical assessment. Springer, BerlinMATH
Gurney JK (2013) Sue my car not me: products liability and accidents involving autonomous vehicles. Univ Ill J Law Technol Policy 2013(2):247–277
Joy B (2000) Why the future doesn’t need us. Wired 8(4):238–263
Krantz DH, Peterson N, Arora P, Milch K, Orlove B (2008) Individual values and social goals in environmental decision making. In: Smith JC, Connolly T, Son YJ (eds) Kugler T. Decision modeling and behavior in complex and uncertain environments New York, Springer, pp 165–198
Kunda Z (1990) The case for motivated reasoning. Psychol Bull 108(3):480–498CrossRef
Lapinski MK, Rimal RN (2005) An explication of social norms. Commun Theory 15(2):127–147CrossRef
Lewandowsky S, Cook J, Oberauer K, Brophy S, Lloyd EA, Marriott M (2015) Recurrent fury: conspiratorial discourse in the blogosphere triggered by research on the role of conspiracist ideation in climate denial. J Soc Political Psychol 3(1):142–178CrossRef
Lin P, Abney K, Bekey GA (eds) (2011) Robot ethics: the ethical and social implications of robotics. MIT Press, Cambridge
Markowitz EM, Shariff AF (2012) Climate change and moral judgement. Nat Clim Change 2(4):243–247CrossRef
McGinnis JO (2010) Accelerating AI. Northwest Univ Law Rev 104:366–381
Moses LB (2007) Recurring dilemmas: the law’s race to keep up with technological change. Univ Ill J Law Technol Policy 2007(2):239–285MathSciNet
Posner EA (2000) Law and social norms: the case of tax compliance. Va Law Rev 86:1781–1819CrossRef
Posner RA (2004) Catastrophe: risk and response. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Russell S, Dewey D, Tegmark M (2015) Research priorities for robust and beneficial artificial intelligence. AI Mag 36(4):105–114CrossRef
Schienke EW, Tuana N, Brown DA, Davis KJ, Keller K, Shortle JS, Stickler M, Baum SD (2009) The role of the NSF Broader Impacts Criterion in enhancing research ethics pedagogy. Soc Epistemol 23(3–4):317–336CrossRef
Schienke EW, Baum SD, Tuana N, Davis KJ, Keller K (2011) Intrinsic ethics regarding integrated assessment models for climate management. Sci Eng Ethics 17(3):503–523CrossRef
Schultz PW, Nolan JM, Cialdini RB, Goldstein NJ, Griskevicius V (2007) The constructive, destructive, and reconstructive power of social norms. Psychol Sci 18(5):429–434CrossRef
Scruggs L, Benegal S (2012) Declining public concern about climate change: can we blame the great recession? Glob Environ Change 22(2):505–515CrossRef
Shome D, Marx S (2009) The psychology of climate change communication: a guide for scientists, journalists, educators, political aides, and the interested public. Columbia University Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, New York
Shulman C (2009) Arms control and intelligence explosions. In: 7th European Conference on Computing and Philosophy (ECAP), Bellaterra, Spain, July 2–4
Stone J, Fernandez NC (2008) To practice what we preach: the use of hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance to motivate behavior change. Soc Pers Psychol Compass 2(2):1024–1051CrossRef
Sunstein CR (1996) On the expressive function of law. Univ Pa Law Rev 144(5):2021–2053CrossRef
Vohs KD, Mead NL, Goode MR (2006) The psychological consequences of money. Science 314:1154–1156CrossRef
Wilson G (2013) Minimizing global catastrophic and existential risks from emerging technologies through international law. Va Environ Law J 31:307–364
Yampolskiy R, Fox J (2013) Safety engineering for artificial general intelligence. Topoi 32(2):217–226
Metadata
Title
On the promotion of safe and socially beneficial artificial intelligence
Author
Seth D. Baum
Publication date
28-09-2016
Publisher
Springer London
Published in
AI & SOCIETY / Issue 4/2017
Print ISSN: 0951-5666
Electronic ISSN: 1435-5655
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-016-0677-0

Other articles of this Issue 4/2017

AI & SOCIETY 4/2017 Go to the issue

Editorial

Uncommon voices of AI

Open Forum

Machine humour: examples from Turing test experiments

Open Forum

How to study public imagination of autonomous systems: the case of the Helsinki automated metro

Open Forum

The case of classroom robots: teachers’ deliberations on the ethical tensions

Original Article

Nudging for good: robots and the ethical appropriateness of nurturing empathy and charitable behavior

Open Forum

Can naturalism explain consciousness? A critique

Premium Partner

    Image Credits