Attributing Agency to Automated Systems: Reflections on Human-Robot Collaborations and Responsibility-Loci.

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ID: 71235
2018
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Abstract
Many ethicists writing about automated systems (e.g. self-driving cars and autonomous weapons systems) attribute agency to these systems. Not only that; they seemingly attribute an autonomous or independent form of agency to these machines. This leads some ethicists to worry about responsibility-gaps and retribution-gaps in cases where automated systems harm or kill human beings. In this paper, I consider what sorts of agency it makes sense to attribute to most current forms of automated systems, in particular automated cars and military robots. I argue that whereas it indeed makes sense to attribute different forms of fairly sophisticated agency to these machines, we ought not to regard them as acting on their own, independently of any human beings. Rather, the right way to understand the agency exercised by these machines is in terms of human-robot collaborations, where the humans involved initiate, supervise, and manage the agency of their robotic collaborators. This means, I argue, that there is much less room for justified worries about responsibility-gaps and retribution-gaps than many ethicists think.
Reference Key
nyholm2018attributingscience Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Nyholm, Sven;
Journal science and engineering ethics
Year 2018
DOI
10.1007/s11948-017-9943-x
URL
Keywords
automation agency human–robot collaboration responsibility-gaps responsibility-loci

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